A Worthy King
by Luke Deadman
Summary: What makes a good king? Should he be powerful? Should he be strong-willed? Should he be wise? Should he be a good and just man? These are the questions that Rodrick Baratheon has been constantly asking himself for years. AU in which Cersei and Jamie were never lovers, Robert could lay his feeling for Lyanna to rest and all of Robert and Cersei's children are legitimate.
1. Prologue: Old Friends, New Times

**Note:**

 **Alright, before we start this story I would like to point something out. I am going to write this whenever I hit a bump with my other story, The Demon of The North. Currently I am having some technical difficulties with my other story (AKA writer's block/my own laziness). For those who have already read The Demon of The North then you will find a certain... someone, that might get you excited or confused, it's ultimately up to you. For those who haven't read The Demon of The North then you will positively get confused. But anyways, enough of my rambling, on with the story...**

 **Prologue: Old Friends, New Times**

Rodrick Baratheon, first born son of Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister and crown prince of The Seven Kingdoms. Ever since he was born Rodrick had been training to one day become king. This training had it's consequences though. Rodrick's mother, Cersei, had always protected him from even the slightest bit of danger while his father encouraged him to basically put himself in danger. This often led to his parents constantly bickering and arguing over anything that had to do with him.

'He's our child! What if something were to happen to him!' Rodrick's mother would always argue.  
'Aye, he's our child! But he also the bloody prince! Let the boy live his own life!' that was his fathers most common argument.

Rodrick sat in on most of those conversations, standing silently in the corner as their parents would constantly scream and yell at each other over what was best for their son. The arguments usually lasted for hours before Rodrick screamed at the top of his lungs, ending the argument in a draw between his parents.

Rodrick's siblings, Myrcella and Tommen, also had to sit through these arguments, often trying to find someone to help them drown out the constant insults and yells and Rodrick was usually the one to be that someone.

Their parents would do this all the time and it would usually just end with nothing being resolved and Rodrick, Myrcella and Tommen waiting for the next argument. Despite that however, Rodrick and his siblings loved their parents with all their hearts, as did their mother and father love each other.

In the beggining, Rodrick's father, Robert, did not love his mother as much as he did now. The whole reason Robert became king was because he waged a war against The Targaryens for the woman he loved, Lyanna Stark. The war ended with most of the Targaryen lineage being destroyed, the Baratheons taking the throne with Robert as king, and Lyanna Stark dead in a bed of her own blood. The crown prince at the time, Rhaegar Targaeryen, kidnapped Lyanna from her own home and supposedly had raped her many times during the entirity of the war before Rodrick's father killed him on The Trident. After the war his father was devastated. Even after he had married Rodrick's mother, Robert still mourned Lyanna, and so it was for more than two years. After those two years however, Robert finally let go of Lyanna and focused more on being a king as well as being a father and husband.

Rodrick's mother, Cersei, had told her son many times of the night of her and his fathers wedding. During the bedding ceremony, Robert had uttered 'Lyanna' right in the middle of the bedding ceremony. Not the most appropriate thing to say to a child but then again Rodrick was used to his mothers drunken outbursts. In the beggining of the marriage Cersei had already lost all love for Robert, but then Rodrick was born, and the two reconsiled.

At first, the two's marriage was more of a marriage of understanding. It was a political marriage and nobody expected them to be in love but over the years, Robert and Cersei grew to love each other, not for themselves, but for their children. And in time, The Royal Family became just that, a family.

Other members of Rodrick's family also included his four uncles, Stannis, Jaime, Tyrion and Renly, and his grandfather, Tywin.

Rodrick's relationship with his uncles was an interesting one. Stannis was the uncle Rodrick could usually depend on for seeking advice, Stannis was a stern man, not smilling for anything, but he was a brilliant tactician, strategist and advisor. Often giving sound advice to both him and Robert whenever they sat at the small council. Jamie and Rodrick did usually have a friendly relationship with one another, if not building a sort of competitive rivalry to see who's the best swordsman. Tyrion was a good uncle, despite Rodrick's mother hating him to the bone and constantly trying to keep Rodrick as far away from him. Despite his mothers efforts however, Rodrick and Tyrion were as close as an uncle and nephew could be. It was Tyrion who taught Rodrick to read and write as well as some of the ways of court. Renly was the least favorite of Rodrick's uncles, despite that however, Rodrick still loved Renly and would never mean him any harm whatsoever.

His grandfather, Tywin, was a whole other story. Rodrick and Tywin always tried to be on good terms and they succeded in that regard. Tywin taught Rodrick everything he knew in both leadership, ruling and politics. Despite the two often keeping in touch through letters and ravens the contents of the letters often were just the simplest subjects. Rodrick was upset that he never could get closer to his grandfather like he did with his uncles, but he doupted he could improve that relationship any time soon. Tywin was a ruthless man, being known for never smiling and valuing the family name and legacy above all else. Kindness wasn't something Rodrick's grandfather really opened up to.

Growing up in King's Landing, Rodrick never really trusted anyone else but his own family and his most trusted friends, what little of them he had. But besides his family however, there was one other member Rodrick trusted more than his own family.

Ser Barristan 'The Bold' Selmy, the greatest and most renowned knight in all of Westeros, Rodrick's sworn shield and personal mentor. Ser Barristan had been by Rodrick's side for almost ten years now. The knight became Rodrick's sworn shield since he was six years old and had just began to practise swordfighting. Despite him being a Baratheon, Rodrick never really had his father's fury nor his brute strength that the Baratheons were famous for. Rodrick was a meek, shy and timid child, a result from so much stress as the crown prince. Despite being almost nothing like his father in personality, nor in physical appearance, Rodrick never showed his timid side to anyone but his own family and Ser Barristan. Where his father still had his massive muscles and through the years had grown a robust beard and hair, Rodrick kept himself mostly clean-shaven with his hair being of medium length. Rodrick also possesed a more lean yet still muscled build while his father was sheere muscle, nothing more, nothing less.

 **Rodrick's POV**

 **The North, Outskirts of Winterfell, Royal Escort...**

Rodrick pulled the reins of his horse to put it to a stop as he reached the top of the small hillside. In front of him was the view he wanted to see ever since they left King's Landing. Winterfell, the main and centre stronghold of The North as well as the ancestral seat of House Stark. The stories seemed to have done the fortress justice. A magnificent structure with walls and buildings to rival even The Red Keep in size, despite it not being the most beautiful sight. Outside the walls of Winterfell was Wintertown, a small amount of buildings placed for the population of Winterfell as well as merchants and travellers.

"She's a beauty ain't she son..." a set of words snapped Rodrick from his thoughts

When he turned his head towards the sound Rodrick saw his father, Robert, riding beside him atop his own horse. On his fathers face was a soft smile and warm eyes, Rodrick thought that his father was probably reminising of his times with his old friend, Eddard. This was not a usuall site yet Rodrick welcomed it with an equally warm expression.

"Yes, it is, but I suspect the inside looks two times better." Rodrick indulged in his fathers nostalgia.

His son's words made Robert let out a roaring laugh as he patted Rodrick on his back with all his force. "Aye, it is!" Robert said, still chuckling a bit before turning his head towards Rodrick. "What do you say we leave these slow shits in the dust and ride out ourselves to Winterfell?" Robert suggested to his son, letting out a slight smirk as he continued on with his idea. To his fathers words Rodrick only let out a small smile, looking towards his father with his usual warm and caring expression.

"Father, I know you are excited, but perhaps we should not greet the Starks covered in dirt and dust." Rodrick said as calmly as ever.  
"Bah, to hell with this." Robert spat out, chuckling once more at his son's comments "I'm riding out, if you want to join then you're more than welcome." his father said before pulling the reins of his horse and riding forward.

In his wake, Rodrick's father left behind a trail of dust that had Rodrick coughing as his eyes teared up a bit. When he could finally open his eyes again Rodrick saw his father already miles ahead of where he should. The sight of his father in so much joy made Rodrick once again smile. His father had always been so playfull with him and his siblings, maybe it was his way of atoning for the first years of his marriage with Rodrick's mother. Or perhaps it was because he didn't really know how to be a father in the traditional sense. Robert never really taught his children anything, no important lessons, no scolding, no instructing, he really stood back and played with them whenever he wasn't preoccupied with his kingly duties. Rodrick loved him for that.

"The King seems to be having a good time." another voice came from behind Rodrick as he heard someone riding up to him.

When he turned around his head around Rodrick saw his mentor and close friend, Ser Barristan, riding up to him with his own trusty steed. Ser Barristan rode on his horse, adorned in his usual Kingsguard armor with a smile on his face as he now stood at Rodrick's side.

"Yes, it looks he is..." Rodrick replied softly.  
"Perhaps we should go after him, I dread to think what your mother would do if she found out something happened to him." Ser Barristan said with his usual wise and elderly voice yet still keeping a light tone.  
"Oh yes, I am sure my mother would be absolutely devastated." Rodrick said sarcasticaly as the two shared a quick laugh with each other.

"Very well..." Rodrick whispered after the two stopped laughing. He turned his head towards the back before shouting, "Uncle, Ser Arys!" he called out the other knights of the kingsguard. "Inform the rest of the escorts that Ser Barristan and I shall be riding forward with my father!" Rodrick yelled out as the two bowed their heads and started to ride back towards the rest of the convoy.

With that, both Ser Barristan and Rodrick kicked their horses as they emediately broke into a gallop, following the king's trail. To their luck, Rodrick's and Ser Barristan's horses were much faster than the kings, all thanks to the queen herself. Rodrick's mother suspected that Robert would do something like this and thus ordered the stable master to give him a slower horse on purpose and give his son the fastest one they had. Rodrick always liked riding, he may not have been the best rider but he still loved the act of riding his steed throughout the open fields and forests, the wind going against his skin and hair, the sound of the hooves connecting with the ground, he loved it all.

And so the two quickly caught up towards the king who was still smilling from sheere glee. Robert's smile only grew bigger when he saw his son and Ser Barristan riding up to his sides.

"So you finally joined in have ya?!" Robert shouted happily, still galoping as fast as he could across the countryside.  
"Sorry father but we're not here to join you, we're here to make you go back!" Rodrick's words made his father laugh more loudly.  
"Hah! We'll see if you can catch me you bastards!" Robert said as he kicked his horse to go faster and left the two in the dust again.  
"You never listen do you..." Rodrick sighed, narrowing his eyes towards his father as he and Ser Barristan also started to ride faster.

Cersei was right in her assumption and because of that, Rodrick and Ser Barristan quickly caught up to Robert once again, this time going right in front of him, blocking the path forward. "Alright father that's enough, you're going back to the convoy and that's it." Rodrick spoke in a stern voice almost as a parent scolding his child. Robert opened his mouth, trying to say something but before he could he was emediately stopped by Rodrick. "Oh no, no 'but's' or 'come on's' you are going back to that convoy right now mister!" Rodrick pointed past Robert and towards the escort that was already many miles away from them.

Robert once again tried to object but was met with his son's stern face and thus, emediately shut his mouth and began to ride back, grumbling in silence like a child. As he saw his father going back Rodrick let out a small sigh before looking back to Ser Barristan with tiredness in his eyes.

"Ser Barristan, you knew my father for longer, was he really always this childish?" Rodrick asked almost as a joke but his tired tone removed any sort of sarcasm.  
"Trust me Rodrick, he was much, much worse before." Ser Barristan replied with his usual soft smile.  
"Somehow, that isn't very reassuring..." Rodrick sighed once more before also starting to make his way back with Ser Barristan.

 **The North, Winterfell, outer courtyard...**

The King and his escort just started to enter Winterfell with Robert, Rodrick, The Kingsguard and the carriage that held Cersei, Myrcella and Tommen in the front and everyone else in the back.

The moment they entered through the gates Rodrick saw the entire Stark family as well as their whole household standing in the courtyard in front of the gates. The Stark family was in the front while else was in the back. The first Stark Rodrick had noticed was Lord Stark himself. A man with long, darkish-brown hair and full beard. His face was a stern one and everything about him represented what a Stark should be. From what his father had told him Lord Eddard was a man that held honor and duty above all else, always doing the right thing despite the consequences. To Lord Eddard's left was his wife and youngest child and son, Lady Catelyn and little Rickon. Lady Catelyn had the definition of a warm and motherly appearance and yet she still had the sense of duty and elegance that the Lady of Winterfell should have. Rickon, a small boy with short red hair like his mother, from his appearance Rodrick thought the boy to be about five or six years old. To Lord Eddard's right was the rest of his family.

The eldest son, Robb. Despite most of his features being that of a Tully, what with his mothers red hair that most of The Stark children had, Robb seemed to have inherited his fathers stern look and chiseled face. For a second The Heir of Winterfell and the crown prince locked eyes. Rodrick gave the eldest son a small bow with his head, Robb did the same.

To Robb's right were the Stark twins, Cregan and Sansa. Aside from their hair and eyes, the two were complete opposites in both appearance and personality. Lady Sansa was the eldest daughter and was known to be a fair lady. Her skin was slightly pale yet that wasn't so suprising due to her living her life in the cold north. She was a beautifull girl in all regards, long flowing hair, soft beautifull eyes, everything about her showed how prim and proper her parents raised her. When she saw Rodrick Sansa gave him a small smile which Rodrick gladly returned.

To her twins welcoming smile Cregan only met the crown prince with and icy stare, narrowing his eyes towards Rodrick. Unlike his twin sister Cregan had a chiseled and stern face, like his brothers and yet his expression seemed more, menacing and inpending. Small scratches that were cut just deep enough to leave a mark could be seen all across his face. Speaking of his face not only was Cregan giving Rodrick a death glare but the strangest this was that both his face and eyes remained completely emotionless, no hint of anger and yet Rodrick felt extremely threatened by the Stark.

The remaining Stark children, Arya and Bran, were nothing more to expect from children. Arya was the one from the two that stood out due to her blackish-brown Stark hair that rivaled her other siblings hairs.

It was then when Rodrick's father dismounted his horse as the entirity of Winterfell bowed to their king. Robert slowly and somewhat menacingly approached Lord Eddard before he got right in front of him. From the distance Rodrick observed what was happening and what would happen next. He saw his father lightly wave his fingers upwards, signalling them all to stand up, and so they did. Lord Eddard was the first to stop kneeling, and with him followed the entirity of Winterfell.

Robert looked down at his old friends stomach for a second before looking back at his eyes. "You've gotten fat..." Robert said rather cinically. By now Rodrick didn't even know what to expect. What was going to happen?

He expected Lord Eddard to be offended but, to Rodrick's suprise, Lord Stark only did the same. He looked down to the king's stomach for a second before going back to meet his eyes. "I can say the same for yourself..." Lord Eddard gave out his witty retort. Rodrick expected his father to be offended then, but once again, he was suprised. Robert gave out a hearty chuckle as did Lord Eddard as the two hugged each other tightly.

That's when Rodrick saw it. He saw what the two thought of each other. This wasn't a simple meeting of a king and his vassal. This was a reunion between two best friends that haven't seen each other in almost nine years.

With that, the king greeted all the Starks with his own form of greetings as Rodrick got off his horse to meet with the Starks as well. By the time Rodrick had gotten up to The Starks his father was already done greeting them. Everyone noticed the crown prince, as did his father.

"Ah, Ned, meet my son Rodrick." Robert introduced his son with no attempt to even hide hide pride during the introduction.  
"It is an honor to meet you my prince." Lord Eddard bowed his head towards Rodrick.

Rodrick stood silent for a moment before reaching out his hand to Lord Eddard for a handshake. The Stark gladly accepted as he took a firm grasp of Rodrick's hand.

"The honor is all mine Lord Eddard..."

 **Note:**

 **Right. Sorry for that abrupt ending but I could feel the caffeine starting to wear off and my Red Bull supply is now officially dry, so yeah. I guess you can say I was getting a bit tired.**

 **Now, most of you fellow readers will be reading the introduction to the Starks and think 'What? Cregan-who? Who the fuck is he?', and that is why I reccomended you guys look at my other story so you will understand.**

 **And with that I am done. Leave your guys's reviews, thoughts, advice etc. What do you guys think about Rodrick? What do you guys think about his relationship with his father? Did I succed in making an OC that isn't just every trueborn son of Robert/Cersei out there? (Shout out to Aldon Blackreyne, guy makes awesome stories I love him). With that out of the way I guess I will see you all next time.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Bethrothal

**Chapter 1: The Bethrothal**

Winterfell was a nice change from the death-ridden, shit-filled and piss-smelling streets of King's Landing. Although the state of the capital has improved over the years, there are still many things to worry about. Rodrick's father had spent years trying to repair Fleabottom and to his credit the living status of Fleabottoms residents has improved, to a point.

Ever since Robert decided to start acting like a king and leave the wine and women behind him the state of the capital improved drastically since The Mad King's Reign. The Royal Treasury was filled to the brim when Rodrick's father got to the throne and thanks to that do the residents of Fleabottom now have decent living quarters.

Despite that however, the capital is still not like what the stories tell people.

Rodrick continued to walk throughout the courtyards of Winterfell, walking around and admiring everything like an awed child. He stared at every new building he saw for a good five or six seconds, trying to remember the entirity of Winterfell, in and out.

Ever since they arrived Rodrick has tried not to overstep his bounds seeing as they were just guests in Winterfell but still, Rodrick couldn't stop himself from looking around.

During their still short time spent here Rodrick has got to know the Stark members a little better.

Ned Stark was everything Rodrick's father had told him about. He was a man with a cold, icy stare and a chiseled, stern face. Despite his features however, Lord Stark always held a soft tone while at the same time still having a sense of sterness to it. Ever since Rodrick's family arrived to Winterfell he has proved to be a more than gracious host to them. Lady Catelyn also possesed her husbands sense of hospitality. The Lady of Winterfell had more than earned her title, speaking, walking and acting with as much grace and elegance as Rodrick's own mother. The eldest, Robb, had also proved to be worthy of his title as The Heir of Winterfell. From what Rodrick could tell, Robb was usually the one that excelled in most sparring matches, archery lessons and horse ridings. If not for Cregan, Lord Starks second son, Robb would easily have been the most skilled swordsman in Winterfell. Speaking of Cregan, Lord Stark's second eldest was easily the one who wasn't at all thrilled about The Royal Family's visit to Winterfell. Cregan, well, Rodrick didn't really know what to think about Cregan. The only two times they interacted with each other wasn't up close. The first time was when Rodrick and his family arrived at Winterfell, and the second time was during the welcoming feast when Rodrick asked Sansa, Cregan's twin sister, for a dance. While Sansa graciously accepted, her twin only looked on from a distance with the same icy-cold stare that he used when they first arrived in Winterell. While Rodrick and Sansa danced to the happy and cheerfull music Rodrick constantly felt Cregan's eyes fixed directly on him. Cregan spoke no words but his glare was saying 'You try anything, you'll regret it...'.

The rest of the Starks were drastically different from their father and the two eldest sons. Sansa was much more welcoming to The Royal Family than her twin. During the welcoming feast she and Rodrick spent some time talking with each other, despite it being mostly Sansa talking and Rodrick listening. Rodrick never really knew how to act around girls, the only ones he could actually talk to was Rodrick's mother and his sister, Myrcella. In public, Rodrick usually tried to hide his shy and more timid side, replacing it by acting as a strong, confident prince. When the feast started Rodrick did his best to avoid any sort of conversations or anything of the sort but due to his parents constantly nagging to converse Rodrick decided to give in and at least try to keep up his act till the feast ends. After the eldest daughter, came the youngest daughter, Arya. From what Rodrick could learn Arya wasn't the prim and proper lady that her sister Sansa was. Despite the two sisters constantly arguing Sansa never really did anything to stop her sisters behaviour nor did she resent her for it. Then there were the two youngest Stark children, Bran and Rickon. Like Rodrick's own siblings, Bran and Rickon really spent most of their time together or with their older brother Robb, just like Myrcella and Tommen would do with Rodrick.

Alongside the Starks were Lord Eddard's two wards and his own bastard son, Jon. Lord Stark's older ward, Theon, was the last living male Greyjoy and the heir of The Iron Islands. During The Greyjoy Rebellion ten years ago Lord Eddard took Theon as his ward to secure Baelon Greyjoy's loyalty. A snarky and proud man, constantly looking at every woman that passes by with lust in his eyes. The younger ward, Lyarra, was a peasant girl whose village was raided by bandits. Supposedly, she ran for many hours trying to escape the bandits until she was found and saved by Cregan. Ever since then she had served as Lord Eddard's ward. A shy girl, much like Rodrick, but unlike him, Lyarra wasn't as good at hiding her lack of self-confidence as Rodrick was.

Then there was Lord Eddard's bastard son, Jon.

Despite Rodrick's father saying how much of an honorable and dutybound man Ned Stark was, it seemed even the best people still wanted to feel human during war. Jon was not the most talkative person, often walking beside his half-brother Robb and only speaking when spoken to. Despite him having very low self-esteem Jon is an exceptional swordsman, matching even Robb's skill.

 **Rodrick's POV**

 **Winterfell, Guest Room, early morning...**

Rodrick woke up from his sleep with drool slowly dripping from his mouth down onto his chin. Rodrick was not the heaviest sleeper but was still for dozing off some times. Quickly wipping the drool of his mouth, Rodrick got up from his bed and emediately went for his clothes. Normally, the warm summer climate of The South would just make Rodrick even more sleepy but the cold Northern air was, refreshing, to say the least. Rodrick grabbed his white tunic, put it on and then reached out for his leather jerkin, buttoning it up the moment he wrapped the jerkin around him.

The guest room where Rodrick was sleeping wasn't like his room in King's Landing. The room was surrounded by stone walls with a fireplace to the side, a wardrobe to the left of his bed and a wooden table with two chairs around it. Not the most comfortable or wide room in the world, but it was enough for Rodrick to not feel claustrophobic. His luggage basically consisted of clothes and the bare essentials with only one item that he wanted to take with him to The North.

On the table in his room was a carved figurine of a songbird with it's head held high and it's wings spread out, much like the simbol of House Arryn. Unlike the simbol of House Arryn however, this figurine was a songbird while the banner of House Arryn was a hawk. The figurine was crudely carved from cheap bark wood, the wings were uneven and it's head was wobbly as well as also being uneven with it's beak. Despite that however, Rodrick took that figurine wherever he would go, no matter the place or the occasion.

Because the figurine was carved by Rodrick's cousin, Shireen.

Some three or so years ago Rodrick sailed to Dragonstone with his uncle Stannis and there he met his cousin Shireen for the first time. At first, Stannis's wife Selyse was reluctant to show Rodrick to Shireen's room, 'the crown prince shouldn't witness a diformed child' that is what they told him. Despite that however, Rodrick insisted on meeting his Shireen.

And so the two met for the first time. Rodrick stayed in Dragonstone for about two weeks and during that time the two cousins became as close as siblings. Shireen didn't have any friends besides her fathers right hand man, Ser Davos, so her whole experience with Rodrick was completely new to her. The two would talk about books, old stories, life in the capital and many other things. Rodrick enjoyed his time spent with Shireen, despite her basically living in a cage for her whole life Shireen still kept a joyous and carefree attitude. But soon Rodrick's time in Dragonstone was over and he had to return to the capital. Before he left however, Rodrick payed one last visit to Shireen and that is when his cousin gave Rodrick the wooden figurine.

Rodrick always wanted to travel all throughout The Seven Kingdoms, as did Shireen. Circumstances however made Shireen not be able to go anywhere but her room in Dragonstone. Rodrick promised Shireen that one day the two will travel throughout all of Westeros together, but both of them knew that was a far cry from reality. And so Rodrick made a promise to Shireen, wherever he would go, this figurine would go with him and so when Rodrick had finally fullfilled his goal of traveling across all The Seven Kingdoms, he would return it to Shireen.

As Rodrick continued to reminise about his time with Shireen, a tiny smile appeared on his face. The smile quickly dissapeared however when a loud knock from his chamber doors snapped Rodrick from his thoughts.

"Come in!" Rodrick said and thus the doors opened to reveal his uncle Jaime, for once not in his Kingsguard armor.

"There you are, come on, everyone's waiting for us in the dining hall" Rodrick's uncle said as he slightly bobed his head outside the room.

Rodrick only nodded in response, quickly placing the wooden figurine in his pocket and going out of the room with his uncle. The two continued to walk throughout the narrow halls of Winterfell until coming outside into Winterfell's main courtyard. While on their way to the dining hall where their family was waiting for them Rodrick and his uncle led a casual conversation. The two might not have been as close as they were before but they still kept a friendly relationship. As Rodrick and Jaime continued to travel throughout the busy courtyard they suddenly heard some sort of a groaning sound coming from the stables. From procces of elimination Jaime and Rodrick thought it could be only one person.

The quickly walked over to the stables and saw none other than Tyrion, hungover and using the hay as a makeshift bed. Tyrion continued to groan until Jamie opened the entrance to the stall where his brother was sleeping and lightly kicked him to wake him up. Rodrick's other uncle blinked profusely for a few seconds, releasing a long yawn before finally being awake.

"Do we even need to ask?" Jamie asked sarcastically, leaving the stall and giving his little brother some space to strech out.  
"You can..." Tyrion said, still hingover from his night of whoring and drinking before he finished his sentence, "... but you shouldn't.".  
"Fair enough, now let's go you two." Rodrick quickly ended the conversation before his uncle Tyrion got any more words out of his mouth.

The three then finally made it to the dining hall where the rest of Rodrick's family was. Rodrick's mother watched as her husband had Tommen on his lap, slightly bouncing him up and down. Myrcella sat beside her mother, watching the two men enjoying their little game. Tyrion emediately started ordering everything for his breakfast while both Rodrick and Jamie went straight to the table and sat down.

"Took you all long enough" Robert said as he lifted Tommen of his lap and placed him on the seat next to him.  
"You'll have to forgive us father, we needed to get uncle Tyrion out of the stables." Rodrick said non-chalantly.  
"That's usually how it goes." Cersei jumped in on the conversation, giving her son a quick smile before going back to her meal.

The family then continued to eat their breakfast. They talked, joked and laughed, these were the moments Rodrick loved the most, when they were all just acting like one big family. Robert, Jaime and Tyrion drank wine and ate large stakes while Tommen, Myrcella and Cersei had the same meal but in smaller portions. Rodrick only had a loaf of bread, a smoke fish and a glass of water.

"Seven Hells Rodrick! You're a grown man now, it's time you start drinking wine!" Rodrick's father roared out, sliding a cup of wine towards his son.  
"Father, when I have a reason to drink, that, is when I will start drinking." Rodrick said as calmly as usuall while sliding the cup back to his father.  
"Bah, when you get married, trust me, you're not going to have enough of the stuff!" Robert said jokingly making his wife scoff sarcastically.  
"So is that why you drink so much? Because of our marriage?" Cersei asked with a playfull smirk on her face, leaning her head to look at Robert.  
"Carefull dear sister, our good-brother has a much less frequent drinking habit than you." Tyrion said with a mix of playfullness and mocking. "Well if we are judging each other on drinking, then you surely come out on top dear brother." Cersei let out her own witty retort.

They all continued to joke and finish their breakfast. After their little family breakfast everyone started to disperse from the table. Myrcella went to one of her sewing lessons, Tommen went to spar with the Stark chldren, Jaime went to the armory to get his armor and sword and Tyrion was probably going back to the brothel. When Rodrick tried to leave the table however, he was stopped by his parents.

"Rodrick, come with us for a second." his mother told him as she and Robert left the dining hall and left for their room.

Rodrick didn't say anything, he only followed his father and mother to their room. Robert and Cersei's room was much more spacious and lavish than Rodrick's own room but that was expected. Even if Rodrick was the crown prince, his mother and father were the king and queen.

"Rodrick, sit down lad." Robert said as he and Cersei sat down on the nearby chairs.

Rodrick did the same, he grabbed one of the remaining chairs and sat down close to his parents who were now looking at him with a serious expression.

"Now son, as you know, I already offered Ned the place as my Hand." Rodrick's father said, his tone being a mixture of seriousness yet still having a warm voice.  
"Yes, and has he accepted?" Rodrick asked, slightly curious at what his mother and father wanted to talk about.  
"He has, and along with him, Lord Eddard's second and third son as well as his two daughters shall accompany us back to King's Landing." Cersei answered her sons question.  
"Then that is good news..." Rodrick said, his tone still calm and collected as he clapped his hands together.  
"That is not all the news however." Cersei continued, stopping Rodrick from leaving.

Robert and Cersei looked at each other for a moment, their eyes locking for a second before turning back to their son.

"Rodrick, I have engaged you and Ned's eldest daughter, Sansa." Robert said slowly, looking at his son with a look that showed he was waiting for how his son would respond.  
"You two are to be married five or six months after we return to King's Landing." Cersei once again added her part to the conversation, also looking at her son, curious to his reactions.

What they saw suprised them both. When he first heard his mother and father Rodrick's eyes widened as far as they could be apart from each other. Rodrick stared at his parents with confusion in his eyes before he finally tried speaking. However, where words should have come out there was only silence. Rodrick couldn't even speak up about his emotions, then again, he didn't really know what to feel. Sansa and Rodrick did speak to each other very much during the feast and he did enjoy her company. She was beautiful that much he was sure about, but Rodrick didn't know if Sansa really felt anything for him or if she was just putting up an act to not insult the crown prince. Rodrick's face constantly shifted across many emotions, joy, fear, confusion, grief, all these expressions ran across his face as he tried to speak words of reason. Before he could say anything however, Robert stood up from his chair, walked up to Rodrick and knelt down in front of him, looking at his son straight in the eyes.

"Listen Rodrick, I know we sprang this on you so suddenly. You are obviously allowed to be confused. But Sansa is a good girl, and she will make you happy." Robert said as he put a hand on Rodrick's shoulder.  
"We will give you some time to think this all out darling. Remember, the marriage is more than nine months away, you will have a lot of time to figure this all out." Cersei kissed her sons cheek as she and Robert both left the room and left Rodrick to think about what had just happened.

'I think I now have a reason to start drinking...'

 **Sansa's POV**

At first, Sansa was confused to what to think of her new bethrothal to the prince. All her life she heard about the stories of Southern knights, of their chivalrous ways and how they would always win the princess with their noble heart. Sansa believed in those stories once, but as she got older, the stories became just that, stories. Her brother Cregan would tell her of the constant lies and deceits of The South, although he was lucky to be in one of the more honorable parts of The Southern realms, The Reach. Sansa was envious of her twin in the beggining, Cregan lived in the heart of all chivalry while Sansa was stuck in the cold North. But once again, she got older and realised how petty she was being.

When her mother and father told her she was to be married to Rodrick, she felt a slight bout of joy. In the welcoming feast the two talked and danced throughout most of the feast and the prince seemed to be a generally good person. He was a bit silent yet whenever he did speak his words were always soft and well-spoken. Their dance together was the part she enjoyed the most. From their little moments together in the feast Sansa did find comfort knowing that her future husband wasn't like the scheming, cruel and ruthless politicians of The South that Cregan would always tell her about. Then again, it could have all been an act to trick her. Rodrick probably knew of the betrothal before her and just wanted to make a good first impression to Sansa. However, despite what she was thinking right now, Sansa didn't want to come to any rash conclusions. If the princes plans were to make a good first impression then he succeded, but Sansa decided to wait and see who Rodrick really was before she reached any sort of conclusion.

Every possible thought ran through Sansa's mind. She didn't know what to think anymore so Sansa decided to seek advice from the one person she knew she could always trust, Cregan.

Despite him being so cold towards everyone, Cregan and Sansa were probably closer with each other than with any of their other siblings. Whenever she needed advice or was in trouble, she would go to Cregan, and her twin was more than happy to oblige and indulge in her problems.

Sansa went to the place where Cregan would most likely be, in the training courtyard. And as she suspected, Cregan was in the middle of training.

When Sansa saw her twin he was busy completely devastating a training dummy, tearing it to shreds with his two swords. Unlike his other siblings, whenever Cregan would spar with anybody he would always use live-steel. Despite that however, Cregan would never intentionally harm somebody without a reason. Most of the sparring matches between Cregan and Robb would always end the same way. The match would start and in less than thirty seconds, Robb would be down in the dirt with bruises all across his body the next day.

As Sansa continued to approach her brother Cregan noticed her and stopped his training for the time being. When Sansa saw him he was completely covered in sweat and yet he wasn't showing any sings of being tired nor was he intending to stop training after their little talk.

"Cregan, can we talk?" Sansa broke the silence between the two.  
"You look worried..." Cregan probably spoke his first words of the day as he sheathed his swords and walked up to Sansa, "...is something wrong?".  
"Well, not exactly, can we just go to the sides for a bit so we can talk?" Sansa said, still reluctant to talk about the thing she was there to talk about.

Cregan and Sansa then walked to the side of the courtyard and sat on the nearby chairs that were placed beside a table. Sansa was silent, moving her lips up and down a bit but still not opening her mouth. This wasn't the usual thing they would talk about but Sansa thought it needed to be said.

"So, I'm guessing this is about your bethrothal to the prince." Cregan broke Sansa off before she could even utter a word.  
"Y-yes... but, how did you know already?" Sansa asked her twin, raising her eyebrows in suprise.  
"You honestly think I wouldn't know if my own sister was going to be married off." Cregan said non-chalantly.  
"Well, no but, I thought mother and father were the only ones to know so far." Sansa said, leaning her back on the chair a bit.

Cregan stared at Sansa for a few more moments before he took a skin of water and took a sip of it. Sansa had already gotten used to her brother knowing everything that could be known about anything but she was still sometimes suprised about how much information her twin actually knew.

"Alright, spit it out..." Cregan let out a sigh, obviously being annoyed by her sisters silence, "...what are you worried about?".  
"Well, it's just that I don't know if the prince is really all he seems to be." Sansa started to explain the reason she was here.  
"What do you mean?" Cregan said as he turned his head towards Sansa and cocked his eyebrow upwards.  
"I feel like he just put up that whole act during the feast to only impress me." Sansa continued to raise her concerns.

"You're right, he not everything that he seems to be..." Cregan's words made Sansa once again look at her brother in confusion. "During the entire feast didn't you notice that he let you do most of the talking?" This time Sansa nodded to her brothers question before Cregan continued. "And while you two were dancing the prince was practically shaking from head to toe...".

"Well maybe he wouldn't have been shaking so much if you weren't giving him a death stare the entire evening." Sansa furrowed her brow, stopping Cregan mid-sentence.  
"Not my point..." Cregan interjected, "... my point is that he was nervous, and nervous people don't do those kinds of things just to impress someone they know will be theirs sooner or later.".

"So that could only mean two things..." Cregan continued on with his little observations as he lifted one of his fingers from his palm. "Either he is only trying to make a good first impression like you said..." Cregan then raised a second finger from his palm, "... or he was genuinely trying to be a good person and bond with you, to a point anyway".

To her brothers words Sansa sighed. Cregan was making some good points, but it wasn't the answer she was looking for. Even though Cregan had always been brutally honest with her, Sansa thought that, for once, Cregan might just say something to make her feel better. Instead he did what he would usually do, Cregan would gather the evidence and come to multiple conclusions with it ultimately being up to Sansa to decide which conclusion was the right one.

"Cregan..." Sansa spoke up again, with Cregan shifting his eyes back to his sister.

"If Rodrick is actually a nice person, then, please, do not threaten him, do not warn him, do not hit him, don't, do, any of your usual 'Cregan things' that you always do." Sansa told him with all the sterness she could muster in her voice with Cregan only staring at her for a few seconds before flicking his eyes away.

"I make no promises..." Cregan said quietly, avoiding his sisters gaze.  
"Cregan..." Sansa narrowed her eyes towards Cregan with her tone being almost like a warning.

"Ugh... fine, I won't touch your precious little prince..." Cregan scoffed as he grumbled the last part of his sentence. No matter how cold and uncaring Cregan might have been Sansa prided herself on the fact that she was probably the only one who could actually keep Cregan in check.

Sansa knew Cregan would never hurt the prince without a reason but still, if Rodrick was truly the man he was when Sansa first met him, then she didn't want any harm to come to him.

 **Note:**

 **Here it is people, the official first chapter. I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I am enjoying writting this story.**

 **Now from what most of you could figure out from just looking at the character section, yes, this will be a OC/Sansa pairing and yes I now that this is basically how most of these stories go but I intend to not make this pairing be like most with the 'Love at first sight' cliche that most stories use whenever they decide to do a pairing. Rodrick and Sansa's relationship will eventually build from a sort of friendship in the beggining to becoming an actual couple.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Kingsroad

**Chapter 2: The Kingsroad**

After Rodrick's proposal had been set with Lord Eddard's daughter Sansa he had been doing his best to avoid her. He may have been the crown prince but Rodrick didn't ever want to show any sort of weakness in public, it wasn't kingly of him. Whenever his parents would try and force Rodrick to be more social with others then Rodrick would just make up an excuse to stay in his room. Sansa seemed to have had the same idea, avoiding Rodrick at every turn but still, Rodrick could feel her eyes constantly staring at him whenever she thought he wasn't looking.

During the month or so from when they left Winterfell to Lord Darry's keep Rodrick had managed to mostly avoid talking about his betrothal. He knew he was being extremely childish and immature about this whole thing but the truth was Rodrick didn't really know how to deal with this kind of thing. He never knew anything about loving someone else other than his family. The only time Rodrick knew the feeling of 'love' was when he had a crush on one of his mother's handmaidens. She was a very young girl, two or three years older than Rodrick at the time with long brown hair and mixed eyes, one eye being emerald blue and the other sapphire green. Apparently coming from a minor noble house in The Stormlands, Rodrick never even found out her name as her mother would change handmaidens every other week as to not get attached to them, another result of her paranoia in King's Landing.

When Rodrick found out the girl wasn't going to be in King's Landing anymore all he wanted to was scream at his mother. He wanted to yell at her, he wanted to hit her, he almost did, until once again, he realised he was just being a selfish child again. Rodrick would never hit his mother, he wouldn't really hit anyone even he hated them to the bone. He had hoped to at least learn the girls name so he could remember, Rodrick wasn't that lucky. When he asked his mother Cersei only shrugged it off in confusion stating that she never even knew about her name.

Ever since then Rodrick didn't really want to care about anyone but his family. He knew that sooner or later, they would either die or Rodrick would never see them again. That is why Rodrick was torn on if he should try and bond more with Sansa or if he should just be distant with her.

'She is to be my wife, she will do her duty...' Rodrick tried to become more stern in his thoughts. He remembered the words of both his grandfather and his mother, 'no matter who you marry, both of you must do your duty as husband and wife'. But the real Rodrick hated those words, he didn't want to be in a loveless marriage, he didn't want to have his wife hate him and become bitter over the years. Rodrick lost one girl to his own goddamn stupidity, he didn't want to lose another.

To calm his nerves and perhaps seek advice, Rodrick went to Ser Barristan. The Kingsguard knight had always offered Rodrick sound advice and Rodrick himself considered Ser Barristan to be both a mentor and a good friend. The two meet up in a secluded courtyard where the two could spar. Whenever Rodrick needed someone to confide in it would normally be Ser Barristan. Their talks would normally happen in the middle of sparring. Rodrick and Ser Barristan's sparring sessions started when Rodrick turned seven and during their many years of training, Rodrick became almost a good a fighter as his mentor, even if Ser Barristan would always beat him in a fight.

Rodrick and Ser Barristan stood eight feet away from each other, swords in hand and fully ready for what was about to happen.

Rodrick charged towards Ser Barristan, his longsword in hand as he lunged it forward to hit Ser Barristan. The knight sidestepped, dodging the blade before swinging his blade towards Rodricks left arm. Rodrick skillfully blocked the blade, stopping it by attaching the sword to his own's hilt and pushing it back. With that he once again thrusted the blade forward towards Ser Barristan's knee to knock the knight of his balance. It didn't work, Ser Barristan used the same tactic as Rodrick as he blocked the blade and pushed it out of the way. Rodrick, still trying to break Ser Barristan's defense, continued to stab and swing with his longsword but Ser Barristan was still dodging and blocking it all with ease. Ser Barristan wasn't even struggling to block and dodge Rodrick's attacks.

 _'Any true knight is worth ten men...'_ Rodrick recalled his mentors words.

Although Rodrick himself was a skilled warrior capable of handling maybe five or six men at once, he was nowhere near the skill level of Ser Barristan. It was for that reason that Rodrick wasn't suprised when he quickly found himself down in the dirt with Ser Barristan aiming the tip of his blade towards him.

"Yield?" Ser Barristan asked.  
"I yield..." Rodrick said in a defeated tone.

As Ser Barristan lifted Rodrick off of the ground Rodrick could see a small smile coming up on the knights face. Rodrick looked at him slightly baffled but after almost ten years of this Rodrick had gotten used to being on the ground after every sparring session. The knight always looked at Rodrick with a slight smile and warm eyes, he never really knew why but Rodrick would always accept Ser Barristan's expression with an equally warm smile.

"Rodrick that was sloppy, you let your guard down." Ser Barristan said with a mixture of confusion and worry in his voice.  
"I'm sorry Ser Barristan, I guess I was lost in my thoughts." Rodrick tried to not give anything away, but Ser Barristan knew better.  
"Are you still worried about your bethrothal?" Ser Barristan asked as the two started to make their way back to Lord Darry's keep.

"No..." Rodrick once again tried to not give away his troubles, unsuccesfully.  
"Maybe..." he corrected himself, slowly starting to break under Ser Barristan's look of concern.  
"Yes..." Rodrick finally finished with his excuses, cracking at his mentors stare.

Rodrick and Ser Barristan had become very close over the years. Ser Barristan always knew when something was bothering him and thus, he did what a kingsguard knight should always do, help and advise his liege. Despite him not being able to be in the king's small council, Ser Barristan still did his best to continue performing his duties. After his father became king the sacred order that was once respected across all of Westeros was reduced to nothing but barely combat-worthy knights with it's only remaining members who were actually worthy of the title being Ser Barristan, Rodrick's uncle Jaime and Ser Arys Oakheart. If there was one thing Rodrick knew he would do when he became king, it would be to restore the kingsguard to what they were before, the greatest and most noble knights in all the realm serving as both advisors and protectors to The Royal Family.

"So, what seems to be troubling you Rodrick?" Ser Barristan snapped Rodrick from his thoughts.  
"It's not really troubling me, it's just... well... I don't, really know what I'm worried about." Rodrick constantly kept trying to explain his situation but still failed.  
"Is it about your bethrothed?" Ser Barristan once again tried to figure everything out.  
"Sansa? No, it's not that. In fact she is good company." Rodrick said, constantly shifting his eyes from Ser Barristan to his surroundings.  
"I did see you two getting along quite well during the welcoming feast in Winterfell." Ser Barristan reinforced his liege's statement.  
"Well yes but..." before Rodrick could say another word he was interrupted by Ser Barristan mid-sentence.  
"And didn't you enjoy dancing with her?" Ser Barristan kept making his point.  
"I did but most of my effort was spent on me trying to not pass out in front of her!" Rodrick was clearly becoming more and more annoyed.

The two continued to walk back to Lord Darry's keep, going further and further away from their little training courtyard, all the while continuing to talk about Rodrick's situation.

When they finally got back to the keep Rodrick and Ser Barristan emediately traveled to the main courtyard. The entire courtyard was filled with a mix of Baratheon, Lannister and Stark soldiers. Most of the soldiers were Baratheon and Lannister while the minority was mainly Lord Eddard's household guard. All the guardsmen were either drinking and gambling, carrying horses to the stables, weapons to the armory and supplies to the storage or they would be patroling the area for any hostile dangers, obviously there were none but the queen insisted. As Rodrick continued to travel around the courtyard he heard a familiar voice calling for him. Rodrick turned around to see a man with short black hair and a trimmed beard, blue eyes as well as wearing clothes that were a mixture of green and yellow.

"Uncle Renly!" Rodrick emediately recognised his uncle as he greeted him.  
"Nephew!" Renly said happily as he hugged his nephew and Rodrick did the same.  
"It's been a while uncle, how have you been?" Rodrick asked after the two stopped hugging.  
"So and so, I've been having to travel from King's Landing to the Stormlands every few months now." Renly said, not even trying to hide the annoyance in his tone.  
"And I'm sure my father will give you much credit for that." Rodrick joked as the two shared a quick laugh.

They talked for a few more minutes before a Baratheon guard interrupted both of them stating that Rodrick's father needed Renly for something and so the two parted ways after saying their goodbyes.

With that Rodrick and Ser Barristan continued to walk throughout the courtyard, Rodrick didn't really know where he was going but being outside helped him clear his head a bit. It was better than being in a cramped hall with a hundred or more people. As they kept traveling the two saw the youngest Starks, Bran and Arya, accompanied by Lyarra, running throughout the courtyard. Rodrick didn't know where the three were going but he was happy to see that at least someone was enjoying this trip. As the three laughing children passed by all the guards and soldiers Rodrick saw the eldest Stark child that was going to King's Landing, Cregan. Like his younger siblings, Cregan was accompanied by his direwolf. All of the Stark children had their own direwolf and from what he could remember the one beside Cregan was named Sif. Cregan was saddling his horse with a bow and quiver strapped to his back and two swords strapped to his sides, he was probably going hunting. The two haven't even spoken a word to each other and, honestly, Rodrick was glad about that. It was no secret that Lord Eddard's second son was hated in The South, when he was only ten years old he had earned his nickname 'The Demon of The North', and from what he saw of Cregan's combat abilities, the stories were beggining to prove true to Rodrick.

Even though Rodrick liked all of the Stark children, currently there was only one he didn't want to see, Sansa. But fate seemed to be quite cruel. In the distance Rodrick saw Sansa with her direwolf Lady beside her. In front of her was Ser Ilyn Payne. From Sansa's expression she seemed to be terrified of the mute knight. As Rodrick continued to look at Sansa standing completely frozen in place from fear of Ser Ilyn, she obviously didn't know why he wasn't uttering a word, Rodrick suddenly felt a tug on his shoulder.

"There she is Rodrick, go talk to her." Ser Barristan said as Rodrick turned his head towards him.  
"Are you insane?! I can't go over there." Rodrick tried to move away, but to no avail, Ser Barristan's grip was too strong.  
"You can and you will, now go." Ser Barristan said, his tone much more stern now.  
"But-" Rodrick tried to say something but was emediately cut off by Ser Barristan.  
"No but's, now go, and try to be normal around her." Ser Barristan said as he pushed Rodrick forward and left.

 _'I will get you back for this one day...'_ Rodrick thought to himself, turning his head to see Ser Barristan walking away before turning back and seeing Sansa still standing in front of Ser Ilyn in terror. He didn't like this, but what was Rodrick supposed to do, if he didn't intervene Ser Ilyn would probably stand there for an eternity and terrorize her. So Rodrick took a deep breath, he regained his posture, straightened his expression, and exhaled, he was going to have to be Prince Rodrick again.

Rodrick then walked to Sansa and Ser Ilyn and got between the two. "That's quite enough Ser Ilyn." Rodrick said, his tone being a mixture of sterness yet still retaining his soft and calm voice. Like always, Ser Ilyn spoke no words, he only bowed, releasing a strange noise that mixed clicking sounds and gurgling, before leaving. Rodrick never liked Ser Ilyn, when he was younger the man would constantly give Rodrick nightmares, the way he spoke was the thing that Rodrick hated the most. Nothing about it was human, and yet it still came out of a living being with human skin.

"You will have to forgive him my lady, Ser Ilyn seems to have a tendency of scaring people." Rodrick said as he turned around to Sansa, who was still confused about everything.  
"Can he not speak?" Sansa asked curiously.  
"No, sadly, The Mad King cut his tongue out a long time ago." Rodrick's words seemed to have gotten a reaction from Sansa.  
"He cut his tongue out?" the question itself was enough for Sansa to widen her eyes in both suprise and disgust.  
"Yes, the story says that Ser Ilyn said something that insulted The King and, well..." Rodrick stopped there, noticing Sansa becoming more and more disturbed by his words.  
"Well enough of that." Rodrick cut himself off before he could continue to say anything else that would disturb Sansa.

"Would you like to go for a walk my lady?" Rodrick reached out his hand as he noticed Sansa's expression light up a bit.  
"I would love to..." Sansa said courtly as she accepted Rodrick's hand and the two went out to go for a walk.

Rodrick and Sansa then left Lord Darry's keep and made their way towards The Ruby Ford. The Ruby Ford was the river where Rodrick's father killed Rhaegar Targaeryen during Robert's Rebellion. The story says that Robert hit Rhaegar's breastplate with his warhammer so hard that all of the rubies flew off and landed into the river. Not the best place to 'bond' but Rodrick thought he might be lucky enough to find one of the rubies and give it to Sansa as a makeshift gift. Luck was never Rodrick's strongest trait but he did consider The Ruby Ford to at least be a good place for conversation were he to not find any rubies.

Sansa once again proved to be good company. Although Rodrick never was good at leading a conversation, he did find himself at least being decent enough to be able to talk with Sansa. The two talked about their lives in Winterfell and King's Landing, as well as the differences in the two places. Despite her obviously wanting to ask, Sansa seemed to be avoiding to talk about their marriage, something that Rodrick was both glad for and yet worried. He didn't know if Sansa found out who Rodrick really is, that he wasn't the brave and confident prince that everyone thought he was. If she did then Rodrick didn't know if this was her way of coping with that fact or if she was too embarassed to say anything about it. Nevertheless the two finally made it to The Ruby Ford.

The Ford was nothing special really. It was just a simple stream of water like any other, eventually branching off into the large amount of rivers known as The Trident. But when they got to The Ruby Ford they found someone both of them weren't expecting. Already from a distance Rodrick and Sansa saw Bran, Arya and Lyarra already beside the river. Arya and Bran were looking around the river for rubies while Lyarra was only watching from a distance away from the water. All three of them were joyfully laughing, completely carefree and without a worry in the world, for the moment at least. When she saw her siblings, Sansa let out a sigh of annoyance but from the smile on her face Rodrick knew she wasn't really annoyed at them.

"I don't think we should disturb them, do you my lady?" Rodrick said, sharing Sansa's smile.  
"No, let us just continue our walk my prince." Sansa said as she once again took Cregan's arm and the two passed the river.

Rodrick and Sansa went past The Ruby Ford, avoiding Arya, Bran and Lyarra as to not interrupt their little scavenging hunt. For the entirity of their little walk Rodrick and Sansa spent their time talking more and more. For this reason Rodrick was happy to know that in the future he will be able to at least talk to his wife. The other parts... well it will all come in due time.

Just when they were about to go back however, Rodrick and Sansa heard a scream coming from behind them. From what he could make out, the scream came from a child.

"That scream was coming from the river!" Sansa was the first to spring into motion, emediately trying to run back to the river but Rodrick quickly grabbed her by the arm.  
"It's too dangerous, go back to the keep and get help!" Rodrick stopped her from moving, his voice and expression instantly becoming stern.  
"What?! No, I'm going with you!" Sansa was still struggling to once again break into a run but to no avail due to Rodrick's firm grip.  
"You could get hurt Sansa, what would happen then?!" Rodrick continued to try and make his point but Sansa seemed to be too stubborn to listen right now.  
"My siblings are over there, we either go together or I am going alone!" Sansa shouted, pushing her arm away from Rodrick's grasp.

Despite his efforts, Sansa seemed to be hell bent on going with Rodrick. "Alright then..." Rodrick let out a long sigh, looking down towards the ground before meeting Sansa's eyes again, "... we go together.". With that , Rodrick and Sansa started to run back towards the river. Their little walk together made Rodrick think that the river was only a short path away, but in reality it was much further. Rodrick constantly kept one of his hands on the sheath of his sword while the other helped Sansa to keep up with him, not suprisingly, dresses were not the best attire for running through forests. Despite her clearly showing signs of struggle, Sansa was still doing her best to keep up with Rodrick. Beside them was Lady, Sansa's direwolf, running as fast as her legs could allow her.

When Rodrick and Sansa got back to the river tehy saw Arya, Bran and Lyarra standing behind Nymeria and Summer, Arya and Bran's direwolves. In front of the wolves was a massive bear with brown fur, a slobbery mouth, and a full intent on having a meal. The moment she saw them, Lady jumped beside Summer and Nymeria, now all three direwolves were growling towards the bear, trying to intimidate the beast and protect their masters. Despite direwolves being known to grow as large as horses, these wolves were still young, and all three of them combined weren't big enough to handle the massive lumbering bear slowly approaching them. With every step the bear took, the direwolves took a step back, as did Bran, Arya and Lyarra. Before the bear could take another step however, Rodrick placed himself between the direwolves and the bear, blocking the beasts way.

"Get out of here, now!" Rodrick yelled out as he unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards the bear.  
"What about you?" he could hear Arya yell out as she and her siblings didn't want to leave anyone behind.  
"I can outrun it, you all can't!" Rodrick once again yelled, turning his head to the Starks for a second before turning back to the bear.  
"But-" Bran tried to say something but was interrupted by the bears vicious roar.

Rodrick noticed that the bear still wasn't stopping, in an attempt to stop it or at least slow it down he swiped his sword low towards the bears legs. It seemed to have worked, the bear took a couple steps back. "Get out of here!" Rodrick once again yelled out and this time, all of them listened. Bran and Arya called their wolves back as did Sansa despite her clearly being torn on whether she should stay or leave.

"Rodrick..." he heard Sansa call his name. Rodrick turned his head once again to look at her. "... be careful, okay?" Sansa said as she picked up Lyarra from the ground.

Before Rodrick could say anything however, the bear lunged at him. Despite it taking him by suprise, Rodrick's reflexes quickly kicked in as he dodged the bear by sidestepping. After dodging Rodrick swung his sword towards the bear, wounding it left eye and forcing to take a couple steps back and in turn, still not allowing it to pass Rodrick. "I'll be fine, now go!" Rodrick finally managed to yell out as he quickly spun his head towards Sansa then back to the bear. To his words Sansa only nodded as she and Lyarra left towards Lord Darry's keep.

 _'Good, their all safe... now comes the hard part.'_ Rodrick thought to himself, flicking his eyes back for a moment to see if all of them had gotten away before returning to meet the bears stare. Only when it was too late did Rodrick realize how large the bear actually was, and yet he still didn't even budge from where he moved. The bear slowly started to lumber towards Rodrick once again. Rodrick swung his blade towards the bear as the animal took a few steps back to avoid the sword. Despite that Rodrick kept swinging at the bear, all of his attacks he kept as controlled as possible, never just swinging madly like an imbecile. Rodrick had fought many foes, but none were like an enormous lumbering bear that would tear him to pieces in a second.

Rodrick just kept swinging at the bear, doing his best to give Sansa, Arya, Bran and Lyarra enough time to get to Lord Darry's keep. Despite Rodrick giving it his all however, he clearly wasn't a match for the animal. As Rodrick swung his sword in a desperate attempt to finish the beast, the bear stomped on the sword, taking it from Rodrick's hand. Now, Rodrick stood in front of a hungry and angry bear with no weapon and only a leather tunic to protect him.

Without warning, the bear lept towards Rodrick. In retaliation, Rodrick did the only thing he thought would work. As the bear came closer and closer towards Rodrick he punched the beast straight in it's lower jaw with all the strength he had. It seemed to have worked, the bear was staggered by the punch and the sheer strength of it's impact almost threw the bear to the ground. Despite not wanting to admit it, Rodrick's Baratheon blood gave him massive strength, just like his father.

In response, the bear quickly swiped it's claw towards Rodrick. The claw connected, grazing the skin of Rodrick's neck and being just deep enough to tear the skin and throw Rodrick to the ground. Despite his Baratheon strength, Rodrick never was as strong as his father in his prime, and now it was coming back to bite him.

The bear slashed Rodrick's chest, leaving a large gash on Rodrick's upped torso going down to his lower left torso. Rodrick had just enough strength to dodge the claw for it to not tear away any more flesh and damage any of his organs. But now the bear placed it's right paw on Rodrick's chest, it's paw mixing with the blood coming out of Rodrick's wound. The bear slowly opened it's mouth, from it's stare Rodrick could see the bear aiming for his neck, it was clearly intending to kill him. Before it could bite down on his neck however, Rodrick moved his arm to stop the bears mouth. And it was succesful, but now instead of his neck, the bear was chewing down on Rodrick's arm, slowly tearing away at Rodrick's flesh. It took every fiber of Rodrick's remaining strength to stop the bear from ripping his arm clean off.

Despite him doing his best though, Rodrick was feeling his conciousness slowly slipping away as he was losing more and more blood. Unlike him however, the bear's onslaught seemed to be neverending, it kept chewing away at Rodrick without mercy. _'It's over... I'm done for... I'm... gonna... die...'_ Rodrick thought to himself as the last bout of his conciousness slipped away from him.

His eyes became heavy, the blood on his hand slowly dripped down onto his face as all he could hear was the bear munching away at his arm. But then something happened...

In an instant, Rodrick heard muffled footsteps quickly approaching them. And almost in an inhumanly fast rate, a figure in a silver-grey color lept throughout Rodrick's vision. After it did, the pain stopped, and Rodrick's hand fell down on the ground. Roars, growls and howls could be heard, Rodrick knew that from the sounds it was two beasts struggling, the bear... and something else. But then the sounds stopped, and when Rodrick desperately tried to open his eyes, for a second, he saw a pair of feet in front of his eyes. The figure knelt down as Rodrick heard an unfamiliar voice, it's tone was completely neutral and devoid of emotion...

"Easy now, you're going to be okay..."

 **Note:**

 **Alright, here it is people, chapter 2. Before I continue however I want to say that the bear suckerpunch scene was inspired by a real life event that happened to me where my uncle freaking punched a wolf straight in it's jaw and knocked it to the ground. Sure it wasn't a full on bear and I won't really go into the details but I just wanted to give that quick shoutout to my uncle because he's awesome (Uncle you're a fucking legend!).**

 **So I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. What did you guys think about Rodrick's relationship with Sansa so far? I just want to know because I know I didn't include much dialogue because like I said a million times, I SUCK AT ANY SORT OF ROMANTIC DIALOGUE.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	4. Chapter 3: To Be Brave

**Chapter 3: To Be Brave**

Sansa ran as fast as her legs could allow her with Arya and Bran beside her and holding onto Lyarra. She wanted to stop and take a rest, regain her breath, let the blood pass through her legs, but she couldn't, Sansa had to keep moving no matter what. As she continued to run back to Lord Darry's keep Sansa had to cling Lyarra onto her, she was still too young for her to be running across a forest.

"How much further?!" Arya asked throughout her heavy breathing, still keeping up with her siblings.  
"Just a little more, come on!" Bran shouted out, him being the fastest of the three he was in front of his older sisters.

After running for what seemed to be hours but ultimately was nothing more than a few minutes, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Lyarra finally got back to the keep. They emediately searched the courtyard for any faces that they recognised and after a few more moments of searching they finally found one, Ser Jory off in the distance talking with someone. Noticing him, Sansa let go of Lyarra, telling her, Bran and Arya to look for their father before running to Ser Jory. As she continued to run towards Jory, Sansa noticed who the person Ser Jory was talking to was, it was the prince's sword shield and the commander of the kingsguard, Ser Barristan.

"Ser Jory, Ser Barristan!" Sansa yelled out towards the knights as they spun around to see who was calling them.

As the two knights turned around both of them widened their eyes in response. Only then did Sansa realise how she looked, she was obviously tired so her heavy breathing wasn't to suprising for Sansa, but when she looked down Sansa noticed her dress slightly torn. On further inspection she noticed her dress also being dirty and worn, another result from her running throughout a forest.

"My lady, are you alright?" Ser Jory was the first to have his wits come back to him.  
"I'm fine Jory, but the prince... he..." Sansa began to stutter through her breathing.  
"The prince?! Where?! Where's Rodrick?!" Ser Barristan emediately knew there was trouble from Sansa's tone.  
"The Ruby Ford, you have to get there and help him, now." Sansa said as she finally regained her composure.

With that Ser Barristan and Ser Jory gathered as many men as they could in an extremely short amount of time. After she warned the knights, Sansa left to find her father. The moment she found her family, her father embraced her as tightly as he could. Sansa was happy that she could get help in time, but a part of her felt guilty for leaving Rodrick behind when she or Lady or Bran or Arya or really anybody could help him. Even though Rodrick seemed like he could handle himself, it was in Sansa's nature to worry about people she cared about. Her family, her friends, anyone she cared about Sansa wanted to protect, but Sansa didn't really know what Rodrick was to her though. Five or six months after they would reach the capital the two of them would be married. She always dreamed of marrying a prince, the man of her dreams, like in the fairy tales. Rodrick was not like that however, he never tried to be romantic with her even though the two had only really spoken a couple of times. Around him Sansa felt, well, relaxed, like she could entirely trust Rodrick. In fact Sansa didn't really have any sort of romantic feelings towards the prince, to her Rodrick had been more a friend than anything.

When the king received news of his son being in danger he grabbed his warhammer and, with Eddard, Renly, Ser Jamie, Ser Barristan and Ser Jory by his side, along with a small band of guardsmen, they all went looking for him. And so they all started to search for Rodrick. On the way to The Ruby Ford however, they were met with a gruesome yet welcome sight.

 **Eddard's POV**

The king and queen had been extatic the moment they got the news. Robert emediately went for his warhammer and, if not for his own men following behind him, he would have ran to The Ruby Ford by himself and crushed every single bone in that bears body. Eddard himself was also worried for the prince, the two had not talked much but what little they did interact with each other Eddard thought the boy to be a kind and good man. Rodrick was not much older than his own twins, some nine or so months older than Sansa and Cregan. That is why Eddard was not suprised when Robert wanted to arrange the bethrothal between his eldest son and Eddard's eldest daughter. Sansa and his other children, as well as Lyarra, begged him to go with the king and help them save Rodrick. Eddard himself was already intending to go with Robert but now there was no question.

Eddard grabbed a sword and a sheath, strapping it to his side before calling for Ser Jory and two other Stark household guards. Along with Eddard's little group there was also Ser Barristan, Rodrick's uncles Jamie and Renly and Robert, along with two Baratheon guardsmen. All together there were ten of them, a more than large enough number to take down a bear, no matter it's size.

Robert was leading them all, of course. His warhammer in hand and his expression absolutely teeming with rage, Robert ran as fast as he could towards The Ruby Ford. Robert was never that fastest runner and yet, right now he was outrunning all of them without any sort of Jamie, Ser Barristan and Ser Jory along with the Stark and Baratheon guards were the ones with the most trouble keeping up to pace with the king due to them being in armor. Eddard and Renly were more succesful in keeping up with Robert but not by much. Eddard knew better than to stop Robert when he was determined to do something. If this was the old Robert, it would have probably been some woman he wanted to bed or a boar he wanted to kill. But that wasn't the case here, it wasn't a whore or a boar, Robert was charging through the forest to help his son, no matter what. For that, Eddard was proud of his friend.

"Come on Lord Stark, don't fall behind!" Renly's yell snapped Eddard from his thoughts.

When he heard the king's younger brothers yell, Eddard noticed how much he slowed down. The three knights and four guardsmen were already in front of him while Robert and Renly were already leagues ahead of him now. Noticing this, Eddard picked up his pace, letting his feet carry him as fast as they could. He quickly passed Ser Barristan and Ser Jory along with the guardsmen before once again meeting back up with Renly. Now he was right back to where he was before and they still didn't reach The Ruby Ford. They continued to run past many trees before Robert just suddenly, stopped. Eddard and Renly finally caught up to Robert before they too stopped and were now standing beside him.

"Robert what's wrong?!" Renly was the first to speak up after they abruptly stopped.

Eddard was going to ask the same question before he then saw what Robert saw. Renly then also followed, turning from Robert and averting his gaze to his front of them was a terrible sight and yet, Eddard felt a sudden relief build up in him. That relief quickly dissapeared when he took another look at what the entire group was now looking at.

Cregan stood in front of everyone, his swords strapped to his side and his bow strapped to his back. He looked at the king and then his father, his usual cold and emotionless stare flicking between the entire group. Cregan was not the person everyone was focusing on though. The person Cregan was carrying had caught everyone's eye. To his right side was Rodrick, his arm's flesh being almost entirely torn off, three claw marks going across his lower neck as the crimson blood mixed with his black and gold tunic as it slowly dripped from the wound. Across the tunic was also a large gash that seemed to have cut through his skin, this wound also had blood dripping from it, covering the rest of the tunic in a crimson blood red color. Despite his wounds being more than gruesome as well as looking as painful as all the seven hells combined, the prince wasn't showing any signs of being in pain. The blood loss seemed to have put him in a state of unconciousness while still being somewhat awake.

"So are you all going to just stand there and continue to be usseles or are you going to help your prince?" Cregan snapped the entire group from their looks of shock.

For a few more moments they all just stood there, frozen in place from what was in front of them. "Rodrick!" Robert was the first to snap out of it, dropping his hammer and running straight towards his son. With him, the entire group also followed as they got out of their state of shock and ran to help their prince. As Robert ran towards Rodrick however, he was stopped by Cregan who lifted his one free hand forward to stop the king seeing as his other hand was busy keeping the prince from falling on the ground.

"Easy now, if he experiences any sudden movements then the prince will lose even more blood than he already has." Cregan said in a monotone voice.  
"What about the bear, did Rodrick kill it or did you?" Renly asked while running to Rodrick's side like everyone else.

"Neither, I had my wolf Sif..." Cregan stopped himself mid-sentence, flicking his eyes back towards The Ruby Ford before turning them back towards the prince, "... take care of it".

Eddard immediately knew what this meant. To others this was very cryptic to what Cregan would do, but to him this either meant that Cregan had viciously maimed or savagely brutalised something, or it would mean that he had his wolf devour, strangle, rip appart or tear away at something. Of all of his childrens direwolves, Sif was easily the largest and was the one who would grow the biggest of the litter. Maybe that was why Cregan choose Sif in particular, or maybe it wasn't, Eddard never really knew why his son would make the decisions he made, but no matter what it was, he knew one thing, Cregan always did the right thing, no matter what.

 **Rodrick's POV**

His entire sight was nothing but darkness. Rodrick knew he had his eyes closed but whenever he tried to open them it would all be in vain, he was to exhausted to open his eyes even a little. Despite him seemingly being asleep Rodrick was fully awake. On his backside he could feel the soft wool and cloth of a bed so Rodrick at least knew he wasn't in the woods anymore. His last recolection was being viciously mauled by a bear, something or someone saved him. The voice that he heard before fully falling into his dark void of conciousness wasn't one he had heard before.

Around him Rodrick could hear many noises, the crackling of fire, the shifting of a cloth and needle, and the humming of a girl. The voice however was the only thing Rodrick could recognise however. He could not quite point it out completely, but it was familiar.

Rodrick opened his eyes just slightly to observe his surroundings.

When he did, Rodrick closely observed what little he could see. He was in a room, seemingly back in Lord Darry's keep, laying on a bed with nothing but a white tunic and pants. Opposite of the bed was a small fireplace with the fire dancing around the charred oak, using it as fuel. Next to his bed was a small table with a jug of water and two small empty cups. Besides the fireplace, the bed and the table there was also a large closet that was probably used as a wardrobe. After looking around the room his gaze averted towards the window. Through the glass of the window Rodrick could see the sun slowly descending, it was probably early evening seeing as night had not yet gathered but this slightly bothered Rodrick. From what he could remember, it was still noon when Rodrick was fighting the bear at The Ruby Ford. While he looked at the window and the sun pierced his sight with it's glow Rodrick's gaze turned to the person beside the window.

The person seemed to be the source of the humming. Despite the sun blocking Rodrick sight he could make out that it was a girl from both the voice and the general figure of the person's body. Wanting to find out who the person was, and seeing how Rodrick was left-handed, Rodrick instinctively raised his left hand to avert the sun's light from his eyes. Instead of raising his hand however, Rodrick felt a sudden large burst of pain going throughout his arm all the way towards his shoulder. This pain made him let out a slight grunt as he placed his right hand over his left arm to try and stop the pain, thankfully, he could move his right hand, unlike his left one.

When she heard the grunt, the person immediately turned around to face Rodrick. Only now did he realise that the girl was busy sewing something during her little song that she was humming. "Rodrick..." the girl said through her small laugh and smile of relief. When he heard the voice, that was when Rodrick finally recognised the girl. It was Sansa...

"Thank goodness your finally awake" Sansa said as she quickly walked towards Rodrick and crouched down beside the bed.  
"It's good to see you to my lady." Rodrick said, doing his best to keep up his prince act through the pain he was feeling.  
"Are you alright? Are you still in pain?" Sansa noticed how Rodrick was still clinging on to his left arm.

When Sansa placed her hand just a bit above the wound was when Rodrick noticed the massive amounts of bandages around his left arm. The bandages covered the entirity of his left arm, going from his hand all the way up to his shoulder in length. After he noticed the bandages on his arm, Rodrick shifted his right hand from his arm to his neck. When he touched his neck, Rodrick once again felt the bandages. To have one last confirmation Rodrick slipped his hand into his tunic and noticed the bandages covering the large gash where the bear cut his skin.

"I'm... I'm fine my lady, I just forgot about my wounds for a moment, that's all." Rodrick reasurred the still worried Sansa, giving her a slight smile.  
"Are you sure?" Sansa once again asked, her voice still filled to the brim with concern for her betrothed.  
"Yes, I'm fine I promise." Rodrick answered, letting out a slight chuckle to Sansa's worry as it reminded him so much of his mother.

When he said that Sansa let out a small sigh of relief, calming herself while closing her eyes before once again opening them to meet Rodrick's. From what he could notice, Sansa wasn't in the same dress she was when they were walking together in the forest. This either meant it was a different day than that, or she merely changed clothes since they last saw each other. Seeing as the last time Rodrick saw Sansa was when she was running throughout a forest with her siblings, it was safe to assume her dress was either torn or dirtied while running back to Lord Darry's keep.

"Are you alright my lady?" Rodrick asked her, noticing a small cut on her left cheek that seemed to cut just deep enough to leave a mark.  
"I'm fine." She said, putting it as clearly and directly as possible.  
"And your siblings?" Rodrick continued to ask, seemingly not caring about his own wounds anymore but more about the state of others.  
"They are all safe and sound, thanks to you." Sansa said, a smile tugging on her cheeks as the words came out of her lips.

To that Rodrick let out a sigh of relief, just like Sansa a few moments ago. "It is you I should be thanking my lady. If you hadn't ran back to Lord Darry's keep and called for help, I probably wouldn't be laying here right now." to his words Sansa gave a warm smile, giggling a bit as a response.

"While I am flattered my prince. I'm not the one you should be thanking." Sansa said, softening her eyes as she looked down towards the ground.

"Oh?" Rodrick said, slightly confused by Sansa's words. He was sure that someone came and saved him and although he couldn't recognise the voice Rodrick it was probably because he was too far gone to be able to recognise it. For all he knew it could have been his father, or Ser Barristan, or even his Uncle Jaime. But now he realised it was someone else entirely. The real question now was who the person that saved him was.

"If it wasn't my father, or anyone else, then who was it?" Rodrick asked, finally giving into his curiousoty.  
"My brother Cregan helped you and carried you back to the keep." Sansa answered, looking back towards Rodrick.

This made Rodrick's eyes widen in suprise. He barely even knew the second eldest Stark and the two never even had a conversation with each other. Of course it could all be reasoned by the fact that Rodrick was the crown prince and Cregan's twin sister was going to marry him, but that didn't seem like 'The Demon' from all the stories Rodrick would hear. Since he arrived in Winterfell Cregan had done nothing but give Rodrick stares that would chill him to the bone, even when he himself wasn't looking back at him.

Before he could continue his train of thought however, a large amount of footsteps could be heard quickly approaching the room where Rodrick and Sansa were. "Huh, I wonder who that could be?" Sansa asked, also hearing the footsteps and getting up from the chair to open the door. Before she could get to the door however, she was stopped by Rodrick who gripped her arm with his own and stopped Sansa.

"I... wouldn't reccomend going near that door..." Rodrick said, seemingly already aware of who was approaching.  
"What? Why?" Sansa asked as she looked at Rodrick in pure confusion.  
"Wait for it..." as he said that, Rodrick closed his eyes, let out a sigh, and let go of Sansa's arm.

 _'In 3... 2... 1...'_ the moment Rodrick completed his mental countdown the door burst open, almost breaking down completely at the sheer force of impact that was used to open it. From the door came Rodrick's mother, running directly towards Rodrick and she would have pushed Sansa down to the ground if she hadn't quickly moved out of the way. The moment she reached Rodrick Cersei gripped her son in a tight embrace, slowly crushing Rodrick in the proccess.

"My baby, oh my baby..." Cersei whispered, still crushing Rodrick with her grip.  
 _"It's... good to see... you too mother..."_ Rodrick whispered, slowly suffocating under his mother's embrace.

After Cersei came the rest of Rodrick's family. First it was his father, followed in by Tommen and Myrcella, and after them came Rodrick's uncles Renly and Jamie. All of them were in tunics except Rodrick's mother, who was in her Lannister red dress, and his uncle Jamie, who was still in his kingsguard armor with his sword strapped to his side. When they all came in Sansa bowed to the Royal Family and quietly left, but not before shooting one last look at Rodrick. When the two meet looks Rodrick mustered up a smile although it was quickly wavering due to his mother still refusing to losen her grip on her son. To Rodrick's smile Sansa also gave him a smile as well as nodding her head and quickly and quietly leaving the room, leaving only Rodrick's family now.

 _"Mother... please... let go... your... crushing... me..."_ Rodrick once again started to feel his conciousness slowly start to slip away from him as he was losing more and more breath. _"Mother... can't... breathe... gonna... pass out..."_ he continued to try and plead for his mother to let go of him, but to no avail. If not for his uncle Rodrick would have probably passed out again.

"Alright Cersei, easy now, we don't want to suffocate the boy." Jamie said as he slowly and carefully pried Cersei away from Rodrick.

"Rodrick are you alright? Do you have a fever? Do your scars hurt? Did your bandages come loose? Can you still feel your arm?..." Cersei continued to barrage her son with question after question. As she overwhelmed Rodrick with the thousands upon thousands of questions Tommen and Myrcella also joined their mother and were now by Rodrick's side beside the bed.

"Cersei! Let the boy breathe!" Robert interupted his wives interrogation session.  
"How can you be so calm about this?! Our son was nearly killed!" Cersei hissed at Robert before turning back to Rodrick.  
"He's fine Cersei, the maester said that no permanent damage was done!" Robert continued to argue with Cersei.  
"His arm was almost torn off! Isn't that permanent damage?!" Cersei once again hissed towards Robert.

"ENOUGH!" Rodrick yelled out, finally regaining his breath after almost being suffocated by his mother. "Mother, I'm fine, really..." he reassured Cersei, gently placing his left hand over his mothers hand. When she noticed this Cersei grabbed the injured arm with both of her hands and slowly and gently lifted it. Rodrick didn't really mind the pain then, even if it did hurt like all seven hells, his mothers gentle and warm touch softened the pain a bit.

"Rodrick..." he could hear his sister Myrcella quietly whimper. Rodrick turned to look at his sister and when he did he noticed her sister at the brink of tears to see her older brother in a state like this. "... are you really alright? You look, pale." Myrcella finally managed to speak up, parting the words from her lip through her tears. Although she wasn't really crying, Rodrick could tell that both her and Tommen were on the brink of tears.

This hit Rodrick right in his heart. His siblings always looked up to Rodrick as their idol, almost placing him on a pedestal. Rodrick was their hero, the person they would always go to whenever they needed help, whenever they wanted to play, whenever they wanted to talk. That is why seeing their older brother in such a gruesome state made them want to cry.

"What? This?" Rodrick said as he looked at his left arm, "Trust me Myrcella, this is nothing." he said with a confident smirk.  
"But uncle Renly said you might never be able to use your arm again." Tommen whimpered through his tears, desperately clinging onto his cat, Ser Pounce.  
"Did he now?" Robert said as he, Cersei, Rodrick and Jamie all shot a death stare at him with furrowed brows, Renly only took a step back from his older brother and raised his hands jokingly in surrender.

Rodrick only sighed before looking back to Tommen with the complete opposite warm and soft look. 'Seven Hells, what do I say to him to cheer him up?' Rodrick thought nerviously before as if a candle lit up in his mind. Rodrick once again smile at Tommen before looking back at his arm.

"Wait, you think this was from the bear?" Rodrick asked his little brother causing everyone to raise their eyebrows in confusion.  
"It isn't?" Tommen asked, sharing in everyone's confusion while his tears stopped for a moment.  
"No, of course not!" Rodrick said while letting another sly smirk, "I... fell down some stairs."  
"You fell down some stairs?" Tommen asked, his sadness slowly fading away.  
"Yes... I tripped, and fell, down some stairs." Rodrick repeated himself, telling every word as slowly as possible.

"Rodrick what are y-" Renly tried to say something before he was cut off by his nephew's cold stare.  
"Uncle shut it before I throw you down a flight." Rodrick said, his Baratheon blood kicking in for once.

"But if that was because you fell down some stairs then what happened with the bear?" Tommen continued to question his older brother, his tears now fully dissapearing.  
"What? You think a big old bear was enough to take me down?" Rodrick said, keeping up his little act to keep his little brother from crying.

"That's my boy!" Robert roared out as he sat beside Rodrick on the other side of the bed.

Tommen's teary eyes and sad expression now dissapeared, replacing it with a look of awe and excitement. His big brother went face-to-face with a bear and came out on top. And while Myrcella knew that Rodrick was clearly lying, she was happy to know that her big brother wasn't in too much pain. The Royal Family then continued to joke and laugh, quickly going from faces of grief and sadness to expressions of happyness and joy.

 **Note:**

 **Alright people here you have it, chapter 3, and what good timing I have because in less than two days, GAME OF THRONES WILL RETURN.**

 **This chapter was really dialogue heavy and the I didn't want to give Rodrick and Sansa any romantic implications JUST YET, so just a warning guys don't expect any sort of actual 'romance' any time soon. Most of the early chapters will really be fluff between the two until they become lovebirds. Also, I wanna ask you guys. Do you guys like this Sansa? Keep in mind that this is the Sansa that I have made up in my first story in which she's not so starstruck and dreamy about the whole marriage with the prince thing. NOW BEFORE YOU GUYS GO ALL "It's not fitting with the original character! You should have just made a female OC!" basically my defence for this is because Sansa is older than she is in the beggining of both the show and books. And seeing how we all get more serious as we get older that is why I made Sansa more 'down-to-earth' if you will.**

 **And speaking of age, here's a genius segway into what all the ages of the characters are because I forgot to do this in the fucking prologue because I'm a forgetful fuck...**

 **Robert Baratheon & Eddard Stark - 36 years old**

 **Cersei & Jamie Lannister - 34 years old**

 **Tyrion Lannister - 28 years old**

 **Renly Baratheon - 23 years old**

 **Rodrick Baratheon - 16 years old**

 **Cregan & Sansa Stark - 16 years old**

 **Myrcella Baratheon - 13 years old**

 **Arya Stark - 11 years old**

 **Bran Stark - 9 years old**

 **Tommen Baratheon - 7 years old**


	5. Chapter 4: Back Home

**Chapter 4: Back Home**

"Rodrick are you sure you are ready to be horse riding so early?" Ser Barristan asked his liege while helping him saddle his horse at the same time.  
"I'm fine Ser Barristan, besides, if I spend another second in that carriage I'll go insane." Rodrick reassured Ser Barristan for what seemed to be the hundreth time.

Ever since the incident on The Kingsroad everyone has been more than overprotective of Rodrick. For the first few days he didn't really mind it, he was badly injured, it was understandable. But it had been almost two weeks now, and despite Rodrick still having bandages being wrapped around his left arm, neck and upper torso, the pain had numbed over the weeks and now Rodrick wasn't accepting sitting in a carriage anymore. All those hours spent in the carriage with his mother and siblings made him want to throw up from the lack of fresh air, even if he did enjoy his families company. Rodrick's injuries also made it harder for him to avoid talking to others, especially Sansa. Even if he was fond of the Stark girl, the bethrothal was still something he didn't want to think about.

Now that he was fully ready to walk normally again Rodrick wanted to go back to horse riding. Every time he would get out of the carriage for some fresh air Rodrick was reminded of whenever he would ride throughout the fields of The Crownlands. The wind blowing on his skin, breathing in the fresh air, the sound of the hooves stomping on the ground, he wanted to experience it all again.

"I still think you shouldn't be riding with your father just yet." Ser Barristan continued to try and convince the prince.  
"My decision is final, I am riding and that is all it is." Rodrick shot a glare at Ser Barristan, ending the conversation.

And with that, Rodrick mounted his horse with the help of Ser Barristan. His left arm was wrapped in bandages and still to damged for him to use it. This was difficult seeing as how Rodrick was left-handed and that was his sword arm, which meant that most of instincts hinged on him using his left hand, but needless to say that would usually end in Rodrick grasping his arm in pain and his mother emediately running up to him in terror.

Carefully he then got up the horse and possitioned himself on the saddle, it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world but it was familiar to him, unlike the carriage. After a few more reagusments Rodrick was finally saddled up on his horse and ready to ride out with his father. He finally felt comfortable in the millions of bandages as he rode out to meet his father and Lord Eddard at the front of the escort. Once again, because of his injury's Rodrick couldn't break his horse into a gallop, he had to slowly ride his way through the escort, passing by many guardsmen, Stark, Baratheon and Lannister alike. By his side was Ser Barristan, staying ever vigilant to not let any harm come to the prince. Ever since Rodrick had his incident Ser Barristan refused to leave his side. Rodrick didn't know if this was because of the knights own sense of duty or if it was because Rodrick's mother ordered a strict watch on her son.

After a few ten or so minutes of riding Rodrick and Ser Barristan caught up to Robert and Lord Eddard. The two were in the middle of talking about something Rodrick couldn't hear. Although it must have been something happy or they were joking because the two were laughing and smiling during the entire conversation. As the two approached Robert and Eddard they seemed to notice the prince and the commander of the kingsguard riding towards them. Robert was the first to notice, with Eddard following suit.

"Rodrick! There you are!" Robert roared out, signaling them to join him and Eddard.

Following his fathers signal, Rodrick rode forward to meet up with his father and Lord Eddard. As he continued to ride forward, Rodrick and Ser Barristan rode past other kingsguard knights, Ser Arys, Ser Meryn, Ser Boros and his uncle Jamie all rode behind the king and Lord Eddard.

Rodrick really only had respect for only three knights of the five remaining kingsguard knights, Ser Barristan, his uncle Jaime, and Ser Arys. He held his mentor in high regard, thinking him to be the greatest knight in all of Westeros, despite his age. Next to Ser Barristan was his uncle, who Rodrick admired mainly because of how he came to be a knight of the kingsguard. Rodrick's uncle was Tywin's eldest son and heir of Casterly Rock and was supposed to be the next Warden of The West. His uncle didn't want to be a lord though, he wanted to be a knight, and he followed his dream. One day, on his uncles sixteenth nameday, The Mad King offered Jaime a position in his kingsguard. Despite it seemingly being a position of honor, the offer was more a jab at Lord Tywin, who The Mad King was increadibly jealous of. However, Rodrick's uncle still accepted the position and, despite many offers to stop being a kingsguard knight, Jaime kept true to his vow and to this day still remains a part of Robert's kingsguard.

Then there was also Ser Arys Oakheart. Out of all the kingsguard, Ser Arys was definitely the most dutiful of them all. While Jaime and Ser Barristan were true knights, Ser Arys held his oath as a kingsguard knight deathly serious, more than even Ser Barristan. Ser Meryn would always follow whatever order he was given, no matter what it might have been, like a whipped dog who was to scared to disobey his master, and while he was an experienced fighter, there was no honor in his way of fighting. Ser Boros was as much a coward as he was incompetent, abusing his position as a kingsguard knight in many ways, often breaking his vows in every way possible. Unlike those two, Ser Arys managed to still obey his king, while still keeping to his sense of honor.

Another reason Rodrick liked the knight could have been because he had a good relationship with Rodrick's younger siblings, Tommen and Myrcella. The two were always fond of Ser Arys and the knight did often provide Tommen and Myrcella company. Even with their family spending as much time as they could with them, Rodrick especially, their father was still the king and had to keep to his duties, their mother, while still loving them with all her soul and heart, had her own duties to attend to as queen. Rodrick, despite his best efforts, also couldn't spend much time with his younger siblings. Most of his time was spent studying, training, learning, and many other things that the crown prince should learn.

Finally catching up to his father and Lord Eddard, Rodrick now rode between Robert and Eddard, with Ser Barristan sticking to the back, still keeping a close eye on the prince.

"It is good to see you are well my prince." Lord Eddard said in his usual regal and mature tone.  
"Thank you Lord Stark, although I wish I could get out of these bandages soon." Rodrick said as he started to reagust his bandages.  
"Remember what the maester said Rodrick, three weeks at the least." Robert joined in on the conversation.

Robert had always shared his wife's care for their children, even if he didn't put it to an extreme. When Rodrick was still a baby, his father would always place him on his lap and bounce him around. Despite Robert never being strict with his children at the least, he did still have high expectations from his eldest son. Rodrick was the crown prince, it was obvious that people had certain expectations from him, but all the pressure of knowing that one day he would become king and when that day comes he might not be a good king made Rodrick act the way he does. He had become less social over the years, he spoke less, he left his room less, he started avoiding his lessons. It ultimately led up to Rodrick having to wear a mask whenever he had to leave his room. He had to become the crown prince, who had no fears, who had no weakness, who couldn't be manipulated, he had to be Prince Rodrick.

"Forgive the interruption your grace, but the queen requests your presence." a lannister guardsman rode up to Robert, Rodrick and Eddard, snapping Rodrick from his thoughts at the same time. From the look on his face, Robert seemed annoyed, probably wanting to talk to his son and his best friend a bit more.

"Right..." Robert sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before looking towards Rodrick, "... time to go back to the old ball and chain".  
"You know mother hates it when you call her that." Rodrick said, sharing in his mothers annoyance.  
"Aye, and I love her for it." Robert said, his expression of annoyance dissapearing and being replaced by a warm, welcoming smile.  
"Best not keep her waiting then." Rodrick said, losing his annoyance and now sharing his fathers smile.

Rodrick wasn't showing it, but he was suprised by his fathers last comment. His mother and father would always argue about even the simplest of things, it either being about Rodrick's safety, or about some other trivial thing that they would usually forget about the moment they stop arguing about it. When they weren't in public or with their children, Robert and Cersei wouldn't really show any affection to one another. That is why his fathers words suprised him so much. He knew that the two grew to love each other over the years but weren't to keen on expressing their emotions.

As Robert rode out to meet with his wife Rodrick and Lord Eddard were now the only one riding in front of the escort. Not wanting to keep up the awkward silence, Rodrick managed to bring up a conversation...

"Now that I have the oppurtunity Lord Stark, I would like to thank you for accepting the position as my fathers hand." Rodrick broke the silence between the two.  
"Thank you my prince." Eddard said humbly, "But to be honest, the king didn't really give me much choice on the matter".

Rodrick wasn't suprised by that, his father never hid his respect and liking towards Lord Eddard. When they were still young, Rodrick's father was sent to be fostered by Lord Jon Arryn of The Vale. The two met there, seeing as Lord Eddard was also Jon Arryn's ward at the time, and became fast friends. Robert thought of Eddard like a brother, so much so he wanted to merge their two houses so they could be bonded by blood. The rest of the story was known, Robert was engaged to Lyanna, Eddard's younger sister, who was kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen after the tourney at Harrenhall, his father then waged a rebelion to get Lyanna back and while he overthrew a dynasty in the process, he wasn't able to save Lyanna. Perhaps Robert saw his son as a second chance to complete his hopes of merging houses Baratheon and Stark, Rodrick wasn't really sure.

Lord Eddard and Rodrick continued to make smalltalk through the duration of their travels. They talked about many things, mainly random conversations that would just come up whenever it came to their minds. Rodrick's mother always told him that The North was a barren wasteland, filled to the brim with savages who call themselves lords, but that wasn't the case with The Starks, as well as The North. Despite most of The North consisting of barren fields, it did have it's own sense of beauty, as well as the cold air managing to refresh Rodrick every time he would wake up. The Starks were also far more civilised, Lord Eddard wore his sense of honor and duty as a badge, although Rodrick feared that his badge of honor would soon be replaced by The Hands pendant, corrupting the honorable Lord Stark and make him be like everyone else in King's Landing, a scheming and lying politician.

Anyone can claim to be a good and honorable man, but in King's Landing, those words are wind when something or someone you love is in danger.

 **King's Landing, Capital of The Seven Kingdoms, Early Morning...**

After a grueling three months of traveling, Rodrick was finally back home.

The capital hadn't changed much, in fact it was exactly as he remembered it. The entrance of King's Landing led to the cobblestone streets and buildings of the renewed Fleabottom, now known as The Stone District. It was not the most creative name, but it was more welcoming than Fleabottom ever was as a name. The smells and sounds were still the same too. The sounds of blacksmiths clanging metal, the footsteps of many citizens, the turning of carriage wheels, all of these sounds could be heard from just the outside of King's Landing. The smell from the outside was a mixture of fresh wheat, just recently harvested, and the smells of cloths, metals, tapestrys, and many other things.

The weather was the thing Rodrick hated most about leaving The North. Ever since he left the cold air of The North Rodrick couldn't help but feel, well, sleepy. The warm summer weather of The South always had a soothing effect on Rodrick, making him feel dazed and tired most of the times. This was especially hard for Rodrick to wake up whenever he had lessons early in the morning. Seeing as it was early morning as they were entering the capital Rodrick didn't want to return home after almost six months of travel with a tired and bored expression, so he made sure to stay awake all the way up to The Red Keep.

Leading up to The Red Keep most of King's Landing was still the same with no really new buildings or instalments that were added. Rodrick's father mainly focused all his efforts, time and money on repairing Fleabottom, or, rather The Stone District as it is now. Years upon years of neglect made King's Landing into what it was during The Mad King's reign. No matter how good the Targaryen who wore the crown was as a king, all their efforts were like taking small steps forward, for each sane Targaryen king though, there was also an insane one, and usually the insane one were the kings who usually brought Westeros two steps back.

After Aegon The Conquerors death and his eldest sons failure as a king, Maegor The Cruel sat on The Iron Throne. His reign was long, painful, and bloody. The only two credits to his name was him eliminating The Faith Militant, an armed religious group of fanatics who believed in The Seven, and finishing the constructions of both The Red Keep and King's Landing. But even with those accomplishments the kingdom encountered a generations worth of suffering, dept and bloodshed as a cost.

Baelor The Blessed who, despite being a kind and wise man in his own sense, plunged the kingdom into an almost unescapable dept. Baelor was a religious fanatic, believing The Seven were the answer to any problem. He was a good and humble man, it is said he wore only a white tunic and pants without ever wearing shoes. Once, he instiled a law to give every single poor beggar, orphan, cripple and peasant in King's Landing a loaf of bread every day. This, while being an action of kindness that made the people love him even more, was the thing that made The Royal Treasury empty for years.

The one that Rodrick considered the worse Targaryen king was Aegon The Unworthy. When he became king, Aegon had probably conceived dozens of bastard children already and yet he didn't stop at that. Aegon was an extremely obese man, eventually dying bedridden and covered in his own lard, but not before conceiving many children from his many mistresses. Somehow, he thought it a good idea to ligitimise four of his bastard children, Brynden, Daemon, Aegor and Shiera. And thus all the 'Rivers' turned to, Bloodraven, Blackfyre, Bittersteel, and Seastar. This choice single-handedly caused the kingdoms to bleed for generations.

But for every insane king, there was a good king that came after them and fixed their mess. After Maegor The Cruel came Jaehearys The Wise, who, in his long reign, is considered the second best king to ever sit The Iron Throne, second only to Aegon The Conqueror. After Aegon The Unworthy came his son, Daeron The Good, who was hell bent on fixing his fathers mess once he became king, and was succesful even with all the dificulties the came with The Throne. After Aerys II 'The Mad King' came Rodrick's father, who stabilized an entire kingdom that suffered a short yet bloody war.

 **The Red Keep, Late Morning...**

They rode through the entrance of The Red Keep and into it's courtyard, Robert was the first to enter with Rodrick, Lord Eddard and Renly behind him. In the courtyard, they were met by Rodrick's uncle Stannis, ever vigilantly brooding by himself. The moment they rode in Stannis started walking towards his older brother, his face staying consistently cold and stern. When he saw his brother, Robert emediately dismounted his horse and started walking towards Stannis.

The two brothers finally met face to face, looking at each other in dead silence. The silence continued before Stannis slightly bowed his head to Robert.

"It is good to see you in good health your grace." Stannis said, keeping things as formal as possible.  
"Aye, good to see you too Stannis." Robert said in a less formal tone but still keeping with the awkward atmosfere.

The silence continued as the two shook hands. Stannis always had been incredibly formal with Robert ever since The Rebellion. At the end of the war Robert sent Stannis to capture and kill the last remaining children of The Mad King at Dragonstone. Stannis, however, was too late. When he got to Dragonstone it was already abandoned without a soul in sight. In his rage Robert gave Stannis Dragonstone while giving Renly, who was still a child during that time, the lordship of Storm's End and made him The Lord Paramount of The Stormlands. It was clear that Stannis was still bitter because of that choice, and yet still he listened to his older brothers command and suffered through it while still retaining his sense of duty. Over the years Robert has tried to make amens with his brother while still not going back on his orders, but sadly to no avail. Despite his bitterness however, Stannis always listened to his king and remained loyal, for that, Rodrick had a massive amount of respect for his uncle Stannis.

After that awkward greeting Stannis turned from his brother and looked to Lord Eddard.

"Lord Stark, I am glad that you accepted the king's offer." Stannis said with much more emotion in his tone.  
"Thank you Lord Stannis, I am glad to be having you on the council as well." Lord Eddard greeted Stannis with the same amount of enthusiasm.

Dismounting his horse, Rodrick also started to walk towards his uncle and greet him.

"Nephew, it has been too long." Stannis said as he reached out his hand for Rodrick.  
"On that we can agree on uncle." Rodrick said, accepting his uncles hand and shaking it.


	6. Chapter 5: A Tour of King's Landing

**Chapter 5: A Tour of King's Landing**

Being back home made Rodrick feel relaxed yet still awfully bored. When he was younger, he and Myrcella would constantly run around The Red Keep, exploring every nook and cranny of their magnificent home. It was always fun for Rodrick when he would go with his sister and the two would pretend to be explorers and adventurers, searching throughout the caverns of an abandoned castle. Those were better days, when Rodrick was still to naive to see daggers in every shadow. That was when Rodrick could still act like a child and not have a care in the world.

Rodrick did always enjoy Myrcella's company. His little sister was always so innocent, probably oblivious to all the scheming and politics that go throughout the capital. Myrcella was born just three years after him and Rodrick always tried his best to keep her sister company and, for what it was worth, even today Rodrick did enjoy walking with her throughout the gardens, making smalltalk. It was also a good excuse for Rodrick to skip out on his lessons.

While he did enjoy sparing with Ser Barristan or his uncle, writing and reading lessons were the things Rodrick dreaded most about in his earlier years. Even today Rodrick still tries to find some excuse to pass on his lessons, going so far as to join his father on The Small Council so he could be free of Maester Pycelle's reading lessons. Despite his hate for reading however, Rodrick did still enjoy learning more about the history of Westeros, especially the history of all the kings that sat on The Iron Throne. His uncle Tyrion had gifted him a book, documenting all the previous kings and queens of Westeros. From the kings that knelt before Aegon during his conquest, all the way to the current king, Rodrick's father.

King Robert Baratheon, The Strong, The Dragonslayer, The Storm's Judgement, those were just a few of the many titles his father had gained after he had become king. All those titles weren't meant for praise however. 'The Usurper' or 'The Childslayer' were what The Dornish reffered to him as. Those titles mentioned both Robert's Rebellion or The War of The Usurper, as well as the murder of Elia Martell and her children by the hands of The Mountain, Gregor Clegane. The stories made Rodrick believe that his grandfather Tywin ordered Gregor Clegane to kill Elia and her children. To make it worse, not only did The Mountain kill Rhaegar's wife and children, but it was the way he did that made Rodrick's father receive his title as 'The Childslayer'. The Mountain smashed the heads of both Rhaegar's son and his daughter against the wall, then, with the blood of her children still fresh on his hands, Clegane raped Elia Martell before crushing her head.

Although the stories say that Rodrick's grandfather ordered the assault, people blame his father for allowing such a crime to go unpunished. Despite everyone saying that Tywin ordered the act, Rodrick couldn't accept the fact the his own grandfather would do such a horrible thing. Rodrick always held his grandfather in high regard, he knew that Tywin could be ruthless, even cruel. But to do such a thing like that, it was inhumane.

'The situation in King's Landing was chaos Rodrick, there was no way for me to prevent what happened without being in The Red Keep myself when The Mountain did what he did.' that was what his grandfather told Rodrick some two or three years ago. Rodrick knew not to trust his grandfathers words, of course Tywin ordered the murder, The Mountain was many things but in the end he was always what his name told him to be, a dog, taught to obey his master. If The Mountain did that on his own accord, the punishment he would have suffered from Rodrick's grandfather would have been ten times more gruesome. Instead, Gregor Clegane's knighthood was reinstated, the same knighthood Elia's husband gave to that monster on his sixteenth nameday.

But, going against his better judgement, Rodrick accepted his grandfathers lie, denying whatever other second thought he had. Tywin was a cold, ruthless, gruesome and cruel man, but he was still family, and if there was one lesson that Rodrick will always remember till the last of his days, it was this...

 _'No matter what they do, no matter who they are, family is family, and when we start going against our own blood, then what are we exactly?'_

 **Rodrick's POV**

 **King's Landing, Rodrick's room, Morning...**

The scent of the sea ran throughout the air as waves could be heard hitting the steep rocks and shores of King's Landing. From the small crack of sight Rodrick could see his left hand spread out on the bed, it didn't have bandages on it anymore, something Rodrick was thankful for, but the flesh that the bear bit off made the arm seem utterly grotesque. From the seemingly large distance from the bed and the rest of the room Rodrick could see his wardrobe, a small table with two chairs around it and a tray with a bowl of fruit on it and beside the tray a flagon of what Rodrick presumed to be water, seeing as he doesn't drink, and a few cups beside the flagon. From the open window, a blinding light came from it. By how strong the sun was shining and where it was Rodrick could tell that he hadn't overslept and that it was still morning.

Despite that however, Rodrick still didn't want to wake up. But, not everyone can get what they want.

Closing his eyes one more time to savor the feeling of being asleep Rodrick thought he could fall asleep again until he felt something off. With his eyes closed Rodrick could feel warm breath slowly going down his face as some sort of dog pants could be heard right next to Rodrick's ear. This could have meant one of two things. Either a dog had found a way into Rodrick's room, or Ser Pounce has suddenly decided to start acting like a dog. The answer to his predicament however, was not what Rodrick expected.

Finally opening his eyes Rodrick once again looked to where his left hand was and found nothing but what he had already seen before. However, when he turned to his right Rodrick saw a pair of wolf-like eyes staring back at him. Seeing this, Rodrick's eyes emediately sprang open but calmed down when he realized the wolf wasn't going to do anything, if it was going to, then Rodrick probably wouldn't still be alive and breathing. Realizing this, Rodrick tried to further asses the situation while still trying to not move a muscle and perhaps startle the wolf.

The wolf was leaning his front paws on the edge of Rodrick's bed, looking at him intently and with what seemed to be a playful and innocent smile, well, what people consider dogs to look like when they are smiling. The wolf himself had a mix of white-brown fur with brown, wolf-like eyes. While staring at him the wolf was also panting profusely, letting it's tongue flap around the edges of it's mouth. This was either from the heat, or maybe the wolf had been running around The Red Keep recently, either one was a good reason.

There were not many wolves this far South, if any at all. The only reason a wolf could be in The Red Keep was if it was the Stark childrens pets. So through process of elimination, Rodrick's thoughts emediately went to the direwolves of The Stark children. Making this assumption, Rodrick took a risk and reached out his hand slowly. He touched the fur of the wolf's head and patted it gently making the wolf bark happily. There was no more doupt about, this was one of The Stark childrens direwolves. The question now was, which child's was it.

From his time in Winterfell and on the road to King's Landing Rodrick remembered which direwolf was which. Cregan's was Sif, Sansa's was Lady, Arya's was Nymerya and Bran's was Summer. Although he couldn't remember Sif much, mainly due to the fact that Rodrick didn't see much of him nor Cregan. However, he does remember the other direwolves more than he does Sif. Lady was much more calm and tamed than the other direwolves, probably taking after her master, Nymerya and Summer were probably the more lively of the four, but it was their appearance that Rodrick was trying to remember.

Getting up from the bed as the wolf moved away from it and now was sitting with the same expression on it's face while wagging it's tail happily. As Rodrick finally got up he noticed his bare chest, he wasn't wearing a tunic or anything else to cover his torso but the thing that bothered him most were the two scars that stuck out. The large gash on Rodrick chest, going from his left shoulder all the way down to his lower right torso, and the claw marks around Rodrick's neck. Every night Rodrick would look at these scars and be reminded of how he was brutally mauled by a bear. In truth, he knew he couldn't take down a giant brown bear all by himself. Then again, he knew he couldn't just abandon Bran, Arya and Lyarra along with their direwolves to fend for themselves. There was no chance for Nymerya and Summer to take down a massive bear at their size and age, direwolves or not. Rodrick didn't know what came over him, or even why he was compeled to stay and fight knowing that Sansa, Bran, Arya and Lyarra were probably safe already. But, Rodrick considered his actions being a consequence of his instincts as a big brother kicking in.

Before he could reminise about his rabid mauling however, a loud bark from the wolf snapped Rodrick from his thoughts. Looking back at him Rodrick once again examined the wolf to figure out which wolf it actually was. White-brown, brown eyes, a playful attitude, all those things added up to one thing and one thing only.

"Your... Summer, Bran's wolf right?" Rodrick asked the wolf as if expecting an answer from the animal.

To his words the wolf only barked happily once again as it bounced rapidly around he little space it had in Rodrick's room. He considered that being a yes. But that raised another question, what was Summer doing in Rodrick's room when it should have been by Bran's side. Despite all the wolves being extremely loyal and faithful to their masters, they were all still pups and may still have such behaviour. Summer continued to bounce around the room with as much care as a puppy could have, constantly shifting his attention to many things that were currently around him. The bouncing would have continued on for hours were it not for a yell coming from the distance.

"Summer! Here boy!" a boys voice came from outside Rodrick's room.

Just now did Rodrick notice his door had been opened, either this was Summer somehow opening it or Rodrick just forgot to fully shut his door before he went to sleep. Before he could come to any sort of conclusion however, Summer once again started to bark, a response to his masters call. Once Summer stopped barking footsteps could be heard quickly approaching Rodrick's room. The footsteps started to come closer and closer all the way until a small boy's head peaked out from the already open door. It was Bran, Lord Stark's third son.

The moment he saw his master, Summer ran from Rodrick emediately to Bran who whole-heartedly hugged his wolf. Summer nuzzled close to Bran for a few more moments before once again starting to bounce around Rodrick's room. Of all the wolves, it seemed that Summer had the most energy and curiosity.

"It seems he's quite the adventurous type, isn't he?" Rodrick finally spoke up, talking in his usually calm and mellow tone.

Only then Bran realised whose room he and his wolf were in. Bran's eyes widened for a moment before he regained his posture and remembered common courtesy. "My prince, you will have to forgive my wolves actions, Summer somehow managed to get out of his pen." Bran said in a much more formal tone yet his voice didn't mask his embarasment and uncomfort at the situation.

When they arrived in King's Landing all of the Stark children had to keep their direwolves in pens, orders from the queen herself. Arya and Bran at first refused to part with their companions and put them in cages. Sansa, while being more compliant, still didn't shy away from showing her reluctance. While the first three Stark children eventually gave in to the pressure and allowed their companions to be held in pens, the only one who didn't agree with this was Cregan. The second eldest Stark pretty much stared everyone down in pure silence until they all backed away from him. It didn't matter who tried to take Sif, Cregan either stared them down or threatened them to back off. Not even Cregan's own father could convince him. On just the first day, more than half of The Red Keep was already terrified of Cregan.

"Summer, come." Bran called his wolf, snapping Rodrick from his thoughts at the same time. Hearing this, Summer emediately ran to Bran's side when the young boy knelt down and slowly started to carres the wolf's brown-white fur. "I promise this won't happen again." Bran said as he took his eyes away from his wolf and towards Rodrick.

Rodrick only waved his hand dismisevly as he put on a smile. "There's no need for an apology. Besides, you shouldn't make promises you can't keep Bran.".  
"What?" Bran raised his brow in confusion, not sure what Rodrick was saying.  
"Animals don't like to be kept in cages, especially dogs. If Summer managed to find a way out of his pen, then he will probably do it again." Rodrick explained to the confused boy.  
"So... how do I make him stop?" Bran asked in curiosoty, still not sure what the prince was implying.  
"It's simple really, don't put him in a cage." Rodrick put it as bluntly as possible.  
"But the queen said we have to keep them in pens." Bran's tone now was slightly bitter, although it was understandable.

To the little boys words Rodrick only gave him a warm smile as he walked over to Bran and Summer. Rodrick knelt down, reached out his hand and scratched Summer's ear, something that the wolf seemed to enjoy. He then turned to Bran with the same smile still on his face before getting back to his feet.

"Tell you what, I'll go talk to my mother and see if I can convince her to let the wolves be outside the pens. How about that?" Rodrick proposed. In truth, he was also against putting the wolves in pens but he didn't want to get into an argument with his mother over it, that would only lead to Rodrick having a headache and his mother having a sore throat.

To that suggestion Bran's face emediately lighted up in joy as his expression became much more vibrant and colorful. It was obvious that the boy almost jumped out to hug Rodrick before remembering who he was actually speaking with and thus he managed to refrain himself from doing anything rash. Except, Bran politely thanked Rodrick before both he and Summer quickly left Rodrick's room.

Now Rodrick was once again alone in his room. "What a nice young lad..." Rodrick murmured to himself, still keeping his smile before he started to walk to his wardrobe and prepared to get dressed for the day

 **Eddard's POV**

Being The Hand of The King had it's benefits but it was still a tiring position. In truth, Eddard never really knew how southern politics worked beside the little that Jon Arryn taught both him and Robert. That was not much however. Like him, Jon was a good and lawful man, valuing honor and duty above all else. Eddard always looked to Jon as a rolemodel and almost a second father to him and Robert. When he received word of his death, Eddard was devastated. That man that raised him for almost ten years, the man that went against the kings orders to protect the boys who he considered almost like his sons, that man who fought beside Robert during the rebellion from the beggining and helped him overthrow an entire dynasty.

Jon's death was suspicious however. For a man his age, Jon was in perfect health. Then all of a sudden, he gets a fever one day that burns through him in less than three. A man that one day is in perfect health but has a fever the other that burns through him is not a regular accurance. It was suspicious to be sure, but the real question was who would do such a thing. As far as Eddard knew Jon didn't really have any enemies in King's Landing, at least not any powerful ones. It could have been a move to cement power for The Lannisters perhaps, to make Tywin the new Hand of The King. Or perhaps it was an attack from remaining Targaryen loyalists, The Dornish perhaps, they are known for their poisons. Whatever kind of move it was, Eddard knew he couldn't let himself meet the same fate.

During the week or so that Eddard already spent in King's Landing he had gotten time to know all the members of The Small council.

First there was Robert, of course, who seemed to have taken his position of king much more seriously than when both of them were younger men. If this was the same Robert from twenty years ago he probably would be bedding every woman in the capital and drinking more wine than a hundred men combined. Instead, he has become a serious and much more focused man. While he still didn't posses the same strength he had in his prime Robert did impress everyone with his continuing skills with his warhammer. Alongside taking his role as a ruler more seriously, Robert had also taken up the job of being a caring father and a better rolemodel for his own children. Despite him not wanting to admit it, Eddard was proud of his old friend becoming much more mature like him over the years.

Then there was Stannis, The Master of Laws. Eddard was happy to have Stannis on The Small Council. Besides Robert, Stannis was the only other trustworthy person on The Small Council, as far as Eddard could consider. Out of them all, Eddard and Stannis worked together the best, perhaps it was because of both of them having similiar personalities and moralities, perhaps it was just because the two could work off each other better than most, either one could be a good reason. At first, it was Renly who had been given the position as Master of Laws, even though Stannis was clearly the better choice. This was still when Robert blamed Stannis for letting the Targaryen children escape from Dragonstone. However, Robert has tried to make amends with his younger brother and thus, he had named him The Master of Laws, replacing Renly.

After Stannis was Ser Davos Seaworth, The Master of Ships. Also known as 'The Onion Knight', Ser Davos received his position because of Stannis. Ever since Robert's Rebellion had ended Ser Davos had become Stannis's right hand man, going from a petty smuggler to a somewhat known knight. There were some difficulties with a poorly educated man being named one of the highest positions a knight could have. Ser Davos was illiterate, and thus could not read anything nor could he write down anything. Fortunately he had his son, Mathos. Who, unlike him, received a decent education on the orders of Lord Stannis. The boy knows how to both read and write and now serves as his fathers own personal steward.

Alongside the first three were also Grand Maester Pycelle, an old, forgetful and seemingly brittle man, a relic of his time. The Master of Whispers, Lord Varys, an unknown spymaster who claims to hail from Essos. And lastly, The Master of Coin, Tyrion Lannister, Lord Tywin's second son, who is currently absent from the council. Of these three Eddard didn't know who to trust less. Grand Maester Pycelle seemed to be a respectful man, but sometimes Eddard wondered how useful a weak, britle and forgetful maester could be. Eddard didn't really know how to think of Tywin's second eldest Tyrion, he neither hated nor liked the man, although Tyrion has the name Lannister he has heard of 'The Imps' many contributions of rebuilding King's Landing such as building a sewage system throughout the entirity of the capital and fortifying the walls of The Mud Gate. Lord Varys was the one Eddard trusted the least, there was no thing in particular that actually made Eddard suspect Varys of anything mischievous but there was just something ...off... about him, it was something, Eddard just couldn't figure out what.

And lastly there was also the prince himself, who hadn't attended any council meetings just yet but due to his injuries and the wary travel back to King's Landing, it was acceptable. Eddard, from what little he could make of the boy, was fond of the young prince. Aside from all the praise that Robert gives his firstborn, Rodrick seemed to be a good lad, with a good heart and a smart mind. At times he could be a bit quiet but then again whenever he was in public it can be a bit overwhelming, constantly being surrounded by politicians who would more than happily corrupt the young lad into becoming their puppet. King's Landing was probably a horrible place for a child to grow up in, especially The Red Keep. This made Eddard suprised to see how seemingly honest and uncorrupt Rodrick was. Eddard's children also seemed to think very highly of the prince. Bran, Arya and Lyarra would talk about him as if he were a legend. Sansa usually kept her opinion on Rodrick to herself but Eddard could tell that she liked him.

Cregan... didn't really have an opinion on him.

 **Rodrick's POV**

In a show of gratitude for letting Rodrick rummage around Winterfell for the duration of their stay, he decided to give The Starks a tour of The Red Keep. Throughout the week that they stayed there Bran and Lyarra would go throughout the halls of The Red Keep, carefree and unaware of anything. Arya would often spend most of these days training with her new dancing instructor, something that suprised most people as it just didn't seem to be like Arya to do anything lady-like in the slightest. Sansa would spend her time with her lessons, either in sewing, dancing, singing, whatever a proper lady should know. And Cregan would mainly spend day and night in the training courtyard, constantly exhausting himself to the point of passing out.

When Rodrick exited his room after his little meet up with Bran and Summer he didn't really know what to do. Until his scars had fully healed Rodrick was excused from The Small Council meetings. He also had no lessons nor did he have any sparring sessions with Ser Barristan today. Not knowing what to do or where to go for today, Rodrick simply started making his way around The Red Keep. Eventually, Rodrick met up with Ser Barristan. The two then continued to walk throughout The Red Keep, making smalltalk along the way, before bumping into Sansa, Arya, Bran and Lyarra who were all walking around the gardens of The Red Keep. When they met in the gardens Sansa explained that they were all just exploring around the keep. Not wanting to just wander around all day, Rodrick offered to give them all a tour of The Red Keep, something that all of them gladly accepted.

The tour would stretch to not just The Red Keep, but all the way to The Great Sept and The Crypts of King's Landing, where all previous members of The Royal Family would be layed to rest. Along the tour Lyarra, being the curious little girl that she is, would constantly ask question after question about anything or anyone that came to mind as they traveled along The Red Keep. Arya and Bran would mainly just follow behind Rodrick, asking the occasional question, while Sansa would silently follow Rodrick and her siblings. From the back of his head however, Rodrick could feel Sansa's eyes constantly shifting towards him, as if she was observing him.

 **The Sept of Baelor, Crypts of King's Landing, Noon...**

"Baelor The Blessed or Baelor The Beloved, a priest, the builder of this sept and the ninth king of Westeros." Rodrick said as he pointed his hand towards the statue of Baelor that was built in his honor. As he said that The Starks all stared at the massive statue, eyes wide and mouths slightly open. Even though Winterfell was a large and spacious place, Rodrick knew that The Stark children probably never even saw a sept larger than their own in Winterfell.

"Was he a good king?" Lyarra asked as she pried her eyes away from the statue and towards Rodrick, her curiosoty never wavering.

"It would depend on who you ask really. Most common folk will tell you he was a good and kind man who loved his people almost as much as they loved him. Priests will tell you he was a saint whose devotion to The Seven was unparaleled among Westeros, even to their own priests. Then there are the lords, merchants and politicians, who will tell you he was a weak and zealous man who depended to much on his own faith rather than being a king." while Rodrick was talking all of The Stark children were listening intently. Even Ser Barristan, who mainly stuck to the sides, seemed to be impressed by how much Rodrick knew about the history of the kings of Westeros.

In truth, Rodrick could talk on for hours about every king, their childhood, their reign, how they died, of their children, brothers, sisters, descendants. However, he knew that this would quickly bore the children and that was the last thing Rodrick wanted to do.

Going past the many memorials Rodrick mainly talked about the 'better' Targaryen kings, seeing as Bran or Lyarra might be to young to hear about Maegor The Cruel or Aegon The Unworthy. They talked about Jaeherys The Wise, Daeron The Good, Aegon The Conqueror, even going past some kings and talking about Targaryen princes like Baelor Breakspear, Aemon The Dragonknight, Brynden 'Bloodraven' Ryvers and many others. The memorials and statues were all organised chronologicaly by date of birth and, in terms of the kings, who ruled first.

Rodrick continued to talk about all the Targaryens in detail while still making sure Lyarra could understand all the things he was saying. It continued to be like that until they got to one memorial in particular. The one Rodrick was taking more than a few precaucions to skip by. The Mad King and his families memorial.

 _Here lies Aerys II Targaryen, second of his name and the fifteenth king of Westeros_

 _Here lies Rhaegar III Targaryen, third of his name, eldest son of Aerys II Targaryen and former prince of Westeros_

 _Here lies Rhaella IV Targaryen, fourth of her name, sister and wife to Aerys II Targaryen and eighteenth queen of Westeros_

 _Here lies Daeron II Targaryen, second of his name, elder brother to Aerys II Targaryen, former Hand of The King and former prince of Westeros_

 _Here lies Celia I Targaryen, first of her name, sister to both Aerys and Daeron and wife to Daeron II Targaryen and former princess of Westeros_

Those were the inscriptions that were marked on the memorial. Those were the names that belonged to The Mad King's family. When he saw this memorial for the first time Rodrick was suprised that his father had allowed such a thing, but The Seven demanded for all kings to be buried here, no matter who they are or who they were. At that time Robert already had enough problems with just the lords, he probably didn't want any more trouble with the faith. Rodrick turned to Sansa, Arya, Bran and Lyarra with a slightly grim expression. They were all confused at this expression, even Ser Barristan was confused before he realised whose memorial that was and was now sharing Rodrick's expression.

Rodrick first cleared his throat before speaking once more, "Do you... want me to talk about this one?", he said quietly.

Sansa raised her brow at this before walking slightly past Rodrick and looking at the memorial. When she read whose names were written on the memorial Sansa's eyes widened. She clearly knew who this was about.

"Why wouldn't you?" Bran asked, making both Rodrick and Sansa turn around to the curious boy. Bran had one hand on his chin with an interested look about him

"Yes, why wouldn't you?" Lyarra indulged in Bran curiosoty, cocking her head slightly to the side in confusion.

Sansa and Rodrick looked at each other and locked eyes, trying to find out what to say. This continued for a few more seconds before, as if a candle lit up in her mind, Sansa spoke up. "This is Daeron Targaryen's memorial, he was the former Hand of The King." Sansa said as she pointed her hand to the memorial while still blocking the way to it as to not let Arya, Bran and Lyarra see the rest of the memorial.

At first, Arya and Bran were suspicious, narrowing their eyes towards the two with expressions that showed off their disbelief. They obviously noticed the weird bout of silence from Rodrick as well as his grim expression along with Sansa's reaction to first reading the memorial. However, they seemed to play along.

"Rodrick, why don't you tell us a bit more about Daeron." Sansa looked towards Rodrick with a 'help me out' look about her. To her expression Rodrick only nodded and she nodded back in response, it was clear Sansa didn't know almost anything about the mad king's Hand, but it was still resourceful of her to find a way around talking about Aerys Targaryen.

Rodrick once again cleared his throat as Sansa returned among her siblings and watched as Rodrick started to talk.

"Daeron Targaryen was the older brother to Aerys Targaryen. When his little brother became king Daeron was appointed the position as his Hand of The King-" before Rodrick could continue his little explanation he was interrupted by Bran.  
"Wait, if he was the older brother, how come Daeron didn't take up the crown himself?" Bran asked, still trying to find holes in what he believed to be a made up story by Rodrick.

"No one knows really. You are correct in saying that Daeron was the eldest, but the real reason why he didn't become king is a mystery. Some presume it was because of political reasons, some think he might have been blackmailed by his younger brother. Some believe Daeron didn't want the throne but took the position as King Aerys's Hand because he was his brother, and he wanted to help his family." Rodrick answered Bran's question, silencing him for now, before he continued to explain the Targaryen princes story.

"Daeron was a kind and caring man, as well as being diverse in politics. Some presume this is one of the reasons the king let him be his Hand. Throughout his life Daeron married his younger sister Celia Targaryen and together they had three children, two daughters, Marinah and Soniya, and one son, Collif. During the rebellion, Daeron joined his families side on the war and, in The Battle of The Trident, he simply dissapeared." when he said that, Arya raised her brow.

"What do you mean ' _dissapear_ '?" Arya asked.

"What I mean is that during the Battle of The Trident Daeron fought till the end until he vanished. Some presume he died and the river swept his body away to The Narrow Sea, others say that Daeron managed to escape the battle and continued to fight on until his younger brothers demise..." before he said another word however, Rodrick's expression darkened a bit before he once again returned to his calm and soothing voice.

"... some actually believe he is still alive, continuing to fight, even now..."

 **Note:**

 **Alright chapter 5, and boy, about time am I right?**

 **But in all seriousness I'm sorry for having this chapter be so late, life just kind of caught up to me and I didn't have time to write anything. But in return I have written a little bit of a longer chapter for you all. So this chapter was pretty much more world building and showing off the differences between the original series and the story. This chapter also introduced an OC that was suggested to me by** _akoslows_ **(shoutout to him guy is awesome go check him out). The next chapter will be taking place during The Hand's Tournament and we shall see what will happen next. As always I do hope you guys can leave your reviews and perhaps predictions because it makes me feel all fuzzy and warm inside whenever I see the favorite, follow or review counter go up.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	7. Chapter 6: The Hand's Tournament

**Chapter 6: The Hand's Tournament**

In honor of Lord Eddard's acception to be the new Hand of The King Rodrick's father had arranged for a grand tourney to be held in King's Landing. Lords, Knights, Sellswords and commonfolk alike all started to travel to the capital. Eventually, King's Landing had become the gathering place for almost a million people. It was no wonder that the entire capital was in dismay due to the extreme number of people suddenly floding in through all corners of Westeros but, thankfully, The Small Council had done everything in their power to make sure King's Landing doesn't erupt into chaos and anarchy.

Lord Eddard was already proving to be a capable Hand and along with all the other members of The Small Council as well as Rodrick's father King's Landing was currently a place of enjoyment, fun, but most of all, order. The City Watch kept a keen eye on every tavern to make sure there were no tavern brawls erupting and, in turn, no unwanted deaths. Lord Varys had his 'little birds' be on standby for anything really, any news, any possible dangers, anything at all Varys would know about it. Ser Davos would mainly just stick to keeping tabs on the ships in the harbor, not the most vital task but it was something to keep him preoccupied. Lord Eddard and Rodrick's uncle Stannis had their household guard make sure no one would use the massive crowds and commotion as an oppurtunity for stealing from the many shops and stands in King's Landing's new 'Diamond District'.

'The Diamond District' as people were now calling it was a new part of the capital that Rodrick's father had built just recently in fact, some two or three years ago. The District was mainly meant to be used for either trade or for setting up shop stands for travelling merchants from Essos. Traders and merchants from The Free Cities like Braavos, Pentos or Lys would come to the capital for events like these looking to sell their wares.

This, of course, required many expenses to build an entire new part of King's Landing and thus, Rodrick's father requested a 'small loan' of 10,000 gold from The Iron Bank of Braavos. The Crown taking a loan from The Iron Bank was nothing unheard of, there were many instances of Hands and Kings taking money from the bank and usually using that money in... questionable ways. But, unlike most Kings and Hands, Rodrick's father managed to repay that loan twofold within just the first year of The Districts construction. The construction of The Diamond District brought The Crown twice it's current income which led to it's treasury almost overflowed with gold. Soon, the expenses used for building the district quickly dissapeared due the sheer amount of income the crown was now receiving.

Two weeks from the tournaments start was when most of guests and participants arrived. First there were the Hedge Knights as well as the Lords that were closest to King's Landing. Then more renowned knights and more powerful lords came from other corners of Westeros. After them came the many merchants, first the local traders and merchants, and after them the foreign ones, mostly from Braavos and Pentos, the cities with whom the crown had a trade agreement with. Already, King's Landing was flooded with travelers from all across both Westeros and Essos. However, there were some guests that even the king and queen were suprised to see.

The Tyrells were one of those guests. About a week or so until the tournaments start all the members of the Tyrells came from The Reach. Lady Ollena, the grandmother to the current generation of Tyrells, formerly a Redwyne, Mace Tyrell, the supposed 'patriarch' of The Tyrell family, Willas, Garlan and Loras Tyrell, the first, second and third child of Mace Tyrell, Leonette, Garlan Tyrell's wife and formerly a Fossoway, and Margaery Tyrell, the youngest child and only daughter of Mace Tyrell. Along with them came many of the lords and knights from The Reach.

However, even with the appearance of The Tyrells, the person who suprised everyone with his visit was a certain Dornish prince, Oberyn Martell. Rodrick, as well as his father and mother, were emediately suspicious. Prince Oberyn's hatred for both The Baratheons and The Lannisters is more than well known. Ever since his arrival Rodrick's father had ordered Varys to have his little birds keep a close eye on Oberyn, Rodrick's mother also had her own spies do the same thing. While his parents spied on Prince Oberyn, Rodrick was just trying to keep away from him.

This was not the first time the two had met.

When Rodrick turned seven his father held a similiar tourney but just a bit smaller and less grand than The Hand's Tourney. Along with the size and scale there were also less participants coming to the capital, but there one guest the suprised everyone, Prince Oberyn. Rodrick and Oberyn spoke during the tourney and, even if their conversation was brief, the then small, fearful and still weak boy that Rodrick was back then was extremely intimidated by The Dornish Prince. Even if Prince Oberyn was nothing but kind and friendly to the small prince, Rodrick couldn't help but be afraid of the man.

No matter what Oberyn's intentions may have been back then, Rodrick had grown more stern and less fearful over the years, and he now knows that Oberyn is a potential threat to his families well-being. He may not have the full strength of a Baratheon, or the massive cunning of a Lannister, but Rodrick knew the ways of King's Landing, as well as the ways of politics. If Prince Oberyn goes anywhere near his family, or even near any of The Starks, Rodrick would make sure that he would pay for his actions.

 **The Gardens of King's Landing, Noon...**

Sansa and Rodrick were taking a walk throughout The Gardens of King's Landing, something that was becoming a far more regular thing for the two. Even if he didn't want to admit it, Rodrick had taken a liking to the eldest Stark girl. The feeling seemed to be mutual as the two would find themselves spending more and more time together as the days went by. They would usually just go for walks around King's Landing and simply talk about anything that would come on their minds. Even if Sansa usually did all the talking, Rodrick did enjoy keeping silent and listening to her talk. From the time they spent together in King's Landing, both of them learned many things about each other. Sansa would ask Rodrick about his childhood and how he spent it in King's Landing while Rodrick would ask Sansa about her life in Winterfell.

With just one day from the beggining of The Tournament, a tourney that Rodrick will be participating in, Rodrick needed to have a moment to atleast clear his head a bit. Luckily and somewhat suprisingly, Sansa was the one that offered Rodrick a walk through the gardens. It could have been that Sansa knew of Rodrick's stress and she just wanted to help him. Usually Rodrick was the one to ask Sansa for a walk but even so, a walk through the gardens was something Rodrick gladly accepted, especially with good company.

And so the two went walking throughout the gardens. Sansa wore a light-blue dress, a color she seemed to prefer, perhaps because it was the same color as her eyes and the dress complimented that feature. While Sansa wore her dress, Rodrick wore a black tunic lined with golden stripes, the colors of House Baratheon. The two actually complimented each other quite well. Sansa usually wore bright and vibrant colors while Rodrick wore his usual black tunic. Their clothing also reflected their hair, as strange as the would sound. Sansa's fiery red hair that she usually kept either in a braid or have it flow freely was a large contrast to Rodrick's Baratheon black hair that usually complimented his clothing.

Walking through the many flowers, vines, and terraces Rodrick and Sansa spent their time talking about random things. Through their time together the two stopped using titles and just reffered to each other by their own names, something that both Rodrick and Sansa were happy about. During their conversation, the subject of tommorow's tournament finally came up.

"Are you going to participate in the tourney tommorow?" Sansa asked Rodrick, her arms wrapped around one of Rodrick's own.  
"I will, but not in the joust." Rodrick said in his usual calm and collected voice that became much more natural with the more time he spent with Sansa.  
"Oh? And why is that?" Sansa once again asked, raising her brow in curiosoty while turning her head to look at Rodrick.  
"I never liked jousts, to planned and so predictable every time." he explained, also turning his head to look at Sansa.  
"Well, I guess it's for the best anyways." Sansa said while letting out a small and somewhat cocky smirk, something that confused Rodrick.  
"Why would you say that?" Rodrick asked, indulging in Sansa's cryptic wording.

"My brother Cregan is going to participate in the jousting." Sansa said, her cocky smirk growing into a confident smile.

Usually, northerners wouldn't participate in tourneys, mainly due to their beliefs not accepting any sort of knighthood, and only knights could participate in tourneys. Even though northmen had their own definitions of 'knights' that are known as Northern Cavalry, who mainly fullfil all the requirements and duties of a knight. There are some rare occasions in which Northerners will be granted knighthood and accept it. That is what happened to Cregan. For his actions at The Kingsroad and for saving Rodrick's life, Cregan was granted knighthood and even his own squire, a boy from The Vale named Triston. Cregan's squire reminded him quite a lot of Podrick, his uncle Tyrion's squire.

Not wanting to keep Sansa waiting for an answer Rodrick finally replied, "And why is it so for the best that I don't go against your brother?".

"Cregan... well let's just say he knows how to end a fight quickly." Sansa said, her smile returning to that cocky smirk from before.  
"Will he be participating in the meele as well?" Rodrick once again indulged Sansa's cryptic messaging.  
"He will..." Sansa then stopped herself, trailing her eyes off Rodrick before going back to him, "... and I feel bad for the man who goes against him."  
"You truly believe in his abilities that much, don't you?" Rodrick asked, raising his brow in disbelief.  
"You don't believe me?" Sansa caught on quick to Rodrick's scepticism on her twins combat prowess.  
"I've heard the stories, and frankly, they sound a bit far-fetched." Rodrick said, now also having a sort of smirk coming onto his lips.

When she heard that, Sansa parted her arms from Rodrick's and the two stopped. She turned to him and now placed her hands on her hips, looking at Rodrick with one eyebrow raised high and her smirk going to the sides of her face. It was clear that Sansa seemed ticked at Rodrick's little comment on her twin. "Oh really? Well, I guess we shall see who the better fighter is in the meele tommorow." she said, keeping her cocky smirk all the way.  
To her words, Rodrick also smirked, placing his hands behind his back and looking Sansa directly in the eye with an intrigued look. "Alright then, how about we make a little bet?" Rodrick asked her, quipping his brow a bit. Sansa seemed to have taken the bait, now raising her eyebrows in curiosoty.

"Go on..." she answered, keeping her hands on her hips and her eyes fixed on Rodrick.

"If I win at the meele tommorow I will proclaim you The Queen of Love and Beauty..." Rodrick said, his smirk constantly staying on his face.  
"But..." Sansa quickly caught on to Rodrick's terms.  
"But you will have to admit that you were wrong and I was right." Rodrick said, his smirk now growing to a smile.

Sansa merely looked at Rodrick before she made her own terms.

"Alright, but if you lose then you will have to admit I was right and you were wrong." Sansa set her terms.  
"Fair enough..." Rodrick said, faking a somewhat humble tone in his voice before being interrupted by Sansa.  
"AND, you will have to buy me a necklace from one of those foreign merchants in The Diamond District" she said in a cocky tone and voice.

The two stood in silence for a few moments, locking eyes, each having their own forms of playful smiles on their faces. The silence continued before Rodrick reached out his hand, "It's a deal then..." he said. Sansa merely nodded and grabbed Rodrick's hand, shaking it in the process. After the two made their little bet both of them decided that it was enough of walking for today so, for now, Rodrick and Sansa began to part ways.

"My lady" Rodrick said in a deep tone, by now the two were using their 'titles' more like jokes than anything else.  
"My prince" Sansa said, her voice was the same as Rodrick's as the two finally parted.

 **Eddard's POV**

 **The Following Day, The Tournament of The Hand, Early Morning...**

Being the kings Hand once again proved to be a benefit as Eddard and his family got the best seats to the tourney, second only to The Royal Families own place. From the distance Eddard could see The Tyrells all the way on the other side of the tourney grounds. Today was the joust and knights both high and low had come to participate in the tourney. All from the most renowned knights like Ser Loras Tyrell, The Knight of Flowers, and his brother Garlan, to less known participants like Thoros of Myr and Ser Beric Dondarrion.

The first round of jousting had been more of a starting round to thin out the participants. In the end nothing really interesting happened and so the remaining participants lined up in front of The Royal Families stand.

Ser Barristan 'The Bold' Selmy and Ser Jaime 'The Kingslayer' Lannister, both in their respective kingsguard armor. Ser Loras 'The Knight of Flowers' Tyrell and Ser Garlan Tyrell, Loras wearing his plate armor adorned with steel vines and roses while Garlan wore more humble armor with his coat of arms of two golden roses on his chestplate. Eddard's son, Cregan, who some were either calling 'The Demon' or 'The Knight of Winterfell', wore as northern an armor as it could be with a combination of boiled leather, chainmail and plate armor surrounding his arms and legs. Thoros of Myr, wearing red chainmail and having his longsword coated in wildfire. Ser Beric Dondarrion, wearing his armor adorned in the coat of arms of House Dondarrion. Ser Gregor 'The Mountain' Clegane, wearing full black plate mail. And finally, Prince Oberyn 'The Red Viper' Martell, who wore full leather armor and on his chestplate the coat of arms of House Martell.

Alongside Eddard was Sansa, Bran, Arya and Lyarra, sitting in their chairs and looking intently at all the remaining participants. Sansa was quietly sitting in her chair, looking at her twin and giving him a reassuring smile while Cregan only gave her a nod. Lyarra was only sitting there and looking at all the people in shiny armor, probably too shy to cheer on anybody but Eddard could see her silently cheering for Cregan in her mind. Lyarra's expression quickly turned from shyness to both confusion and suprise when Ser Garlan gave the little girl a gold rose, like the sigil of House Tyrell. The knight merely gave the girl a warm smile before riding forward and leaving the girl amazed at what had just happened. If it was anyone else Eddard would think that he was manipulating Lyarra but from what Cregan told him of The Tyrells Eddard thought of Garlan as a kind and honorable man. While Sansa and Lyarra were sitting there quietly Bran and Arya were cheering on their big brother as loudly as possible.

The knights all bowed their heads towards The Royal Family. That is when Eddard took a quick glance towards The Royal Families stand. Robert sat in the middle, a golden crown adorned with antlers and a red and blue jewel in the front of it atop his head. To his left side was the queen, Cersei Lannister. As much as Eddard didn't want to admit it, the two did compliment each other quite well. To the king and queen's right were his children, Rodrick, Myrcella and Tommen. In truth, Eddard was suprised to see Rodrick not participating in the joust but Sansa told him that the prince will take part in the meele after the joust so Eddard just presumed Rodrick was preserving his strength for the meele. Myrcella, the king's only daughter, was wearing a red and gold dress, the colors of both House Baratheon and House Lannister. Tommen, the second son, had his kitten, Ser Pounce, on his lap while having the same face as Lyarra when all the knights lined up in front of The Royal Family.

The tournament had started and, one by one, more knights fell under the force of the lance. Ser Barristan unseated Ser Jaime, Ser Beric unseated Thoros, Ser Cregan unseated Ser Loras, Ser Gregor unseated Ser Robar Royce, and many more knights were unseated until, in the end, Prince Oberyn, Cregan, Ser Garlan and Ser Gregor were the only ones remaining.

Cregan and Prince Oberyn went against each other in the next round and as the two lined up in front of The Royal Family Eddard could hear the Dornish prince whisper something to Cregan.

"Sorry my boy, but I have no intention of losing this round." Oberyn whispered only for Cregan to turn his head and look at him through his helmet.  
"Nor do I..." Cregan put it as bluntly as possible, using his characteristic monotone voice the entire time.

And so the two rode out and went to their separate places around some twenty feet apart from each other. Cregan had his squire Triston pass him his lance and shield while Oberyn had a diferent lance simbolising his place in dorn as a golden viper wrapped his lance and the tip of the lance came out of the vipers mouth. It was a bit over-decorated for Eddard's standards but he thought nothing of at the time. Now, after the round had started, the two emediately galloped their horses towards one another, each having their lances aimed directly at one another. Cregan, however, aimed his lance a bit more to the right, and Eddard noticed this. Before he could fully react to it however, Prince Oberyn found his lance missing Cregan but just by a hair as Cregan moved his saddle to the left and thrust his lance, hitting Oberyn directly in his shoulder and sending him flying off his horse.

Cregan had won that round.

After the round had ended Eddard saw Sansa turn to the prince and give him sort of a playful smirk as the prince only looked at her with a look Eddard never saw from him. He was happy that the two managed to become closer over time, Eddard didn't want his daughter to be a loveless marriage and it was seeming that both she and Rodrick were getting along quite well.

The next round was with Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Garlan Tyrell. The same thing had happened, they gathered in front of The Royal Family, bowed their heads, and went to their separate stations. However, what came after, was quite different than with Cregan's round.

As soon as the round started the two both rode at each other, lances ready, shields up, and horses in full charge. The two's armor clanged and chirped all the way until their lances met. Ser Garlan's lance connected to Ser Gregor's chest, sending him flying off his horse. However, before The Mountain fell off his horse, Ser Gregors lance hit Garlan's shield and the sheer force of impact sent Garlan flying as well. The round ended in a draw with both Ser Garlan and Ser Gregor lying in the dirt, grunting in pain from their receiving blows. Gregor held his shoulder for a couple of minutes before getting and while Garlan was still holding his left arm in pain Eddard could see The Mountain taking his greatsword and cutting off his horses head clean off.

To that sight everyone started to scream in terror, Garlan would have been the next person to be decapitated were it not for his quick reactions. The Tyrell knight jumped from the ground and called for his squire to throw him his blade. The squire did so and threw the longswords to Garlan and as soon as he caught it both The Mountain and Ser Garlan clashed steel.

The Golden Rose fought back against The Mountain That Rides.

For the first few moments Garlan seemed to have the upper hand, even with the suddenness of everything. Garlan parried, dodged and blocked every single blow The Mountain was inflicting with complete mastery, it was clear that the second Tyrell son had much skill in battle and combat, and the stories that Cregan had told Eddard of Garlan were looking to prove true. While The Mountain barraged Ser Garlan with blow after blow Garlan was noticably getting slower, not being able to withstand the seemingly endless storm of hits from Clegan. In the end, Eddard could see The Tyrells growing more and more concerned for Garlan. That worry only grew when Garlan blocked a blow from The Mountains greatsword only to be thrown onto the ground by the force of impact as well as throwing the longsword from Garlan's hands.

When that happened Leonette, Garlan's wife, jumped out her chair in shock, looking at her husband and Eddard could see the poor girl silently praying for a miracle to happen and for the fight to stop. Eddard turned his head to where The Royal Family was, he saw the queen, calmly staring at the scene. 'Was this your plan Lannister?' Eddard thought to himself, narrowing his eyes towards the queen before turning his eyes to the right and seeing the chair where Robert was sitting to be empty. This confused Eddard to no end. 'Robert where are you?!' he screamed in his head. After looking at the empty chair Eddard turned his head even more to see Robert's children. Rodrick, like his mother, was staring at the scene calmly but hiding his nervousness much less than his mother while his siblings were practically sweating from nervousness.

Eddard had half the mind to get up from his chair and jump into that arena himself but, before he could do that, he was stopped by Rodrick who shot a glare towards Eddard and raised his hand slightly to signal him to stop. Eddard couldn't figure out why the prince was doing that but when he turned around back to the arena he saw why.

The scene was the same as before, Garlan lying in the dirt with the The Mountain standing over him, his greatsword in both of his hands and ready to cleave the knight in half. Before that could happen however, Eddard saw Robert walking behind The Mountain, warhammer in hand and, before Clegane could even turn around and face the king, Robert smashed The Mountains helmet with his warhammer, knocking him to the ground. As The Mountain fell to the ground Eddard could see the massive dent Robert put in his helmet as he was now under Robert's true wrath.

Eddard could swear The Mountain was going to attack Robert if not for him pointing his hammer towards Clegane and threatening him. "One wrong move and I smash your fucking skull in dog." Eddard could hear Robert say in a low and menacing tone. Clegane then just layed there before seemingly passing out from possible blood loss. "Take that bastard out of my sight and bandage him up." Robert commanded Ser Boros and Ser Meryn who dragged The Mountain away with much difficulty due to his size and weight.

Eventually, Robert turned to Garlan, who was still lying on the ground and looking at the whole scene in both shock and confusion. Robert reached out his hand which Garlan gladly took as The King picked him off the ground. For a second Garlan let out another grunt of pain before meeting eyes with The King.

"Thank you, your grace. If not for you I would be another one of Clegane's horses." Garlan said humbly.  
"Don't beat yourself up lad, not many people can take on that monster by themselves." Robert said as he patted the knight on his other shoulder.

With that Robert turned away from Garlan and spoke to the crowd. "The Gods have made their will known!" Robert shouted out to the crowd, raising his arms in air towards them. "Ser Garlan Tyrell wins this round!" Robert completed his declaration before taking a quick glance towards The Tyrells, then to Garlan, then to Cersei. Cersei did nothing but smile and nod at Robert as The King did the same, it appears that Eddard was wrong about The Queens calm stare.

The next round procceded normaly compared to the last one. It was the final round, Cregan against Ser Garlan. Everything was the same, they lined up in front of The Royal Family, bowed their heads and went to their respective stations. When the round started the two both charged with their horses. Cregan pointed his lance forward and raised his shield as Garlan did the same. However, unlike last time, Cregan did not dodge the lance, Garlan didn't even miss Cregan. Garlan's lance connected with Cregan's shield and it did nothing, not even staggering him. Unlike Cregan however, who was able to withstand the entire blow with ease, Garlan was sent flying from Cregan's lance.

And thus, Cregan was victorious, winning the tournament and being crowned the champion for jousting. The entire ceremony was grand, people cheered for The Knight of Winterfell, men, women and children alike were chanting Cregan's name. However, the moment when Eddard felt the most happy for his son was when The High Septon granted Cregan a crown of roses to name a Queen of Love and Beauty. Everyone was silent, not knowing who Cregan was going to pick but Eddard already knew who his son would choose, and his suspiciouns were correct.

Cregan rode in front of The Tyrell family and was now in front of Margaery Tyrell, Mace Tyrell's youngest child and daughter. The two could be seen looking at each other for a second before Cregan reached out his hand to grant Margaery the crown of blue roses, naming her The Queen of Love and Beauty. Eddard could have been imagining it, but when Margaery placed the crown of blue roses atop her head he could swear that he saw the Tyrell girl seductively wink at Cregan.

 **Rodrick's POV**

The following day had come and the meele was beggining. Rodrick wore his armor, plate armor with the coat of arms of House Baratheon on his chestplate, the black crowned stag in a field of gold. After losing his sword Rodrick had a blacksmith named Tobho Mott forge him an entirely new longsword, it's hilt decorated in gold with the sigil of the crowned stag of House Baratheon on the end of it. The new sword was not the thing Rodrick was focused on however, it was his shield. A shield made from one of the blacksmiths in Qohor using the closest metal to Valyrian Steel that this world still possesed. It was a knights heater shield with the sigil of House Baratheon engraved on it and the metal, which originally had a silver coating, was doused in a gold and black color, also simbolising the colors of Rodrick's House. The shield was gifted to him by his grandfather Tywin in hopes of making him a better fighter.

The meele was about to start and as Rodrick put on his helmet and closed it's vizor he sheathed his sword and, from his pocket, pulled out a small wooden figurine of a songbird. "Wish me luck Shireen..." Rodrick murmured to himself, looking at the small figurine before putting it back into his pocket and going out into the arena where nineteen other people were also there.

"LET IT BEGIN!" Rodrick could hear his father yell out from where he and the rest of his family was and as he did that the entire crowd stood up and roared out in a massive cheer.

With that, all the participants started to engage one another, all having their respective armors to distuinguish themselves from one another. The battle was intense, everyone was fighting their own opponent, Rodrick himself was facing off against his uncle, who stood out because of his kingsguard armor and white cloak. "Sorry about this nephew" Jaime said in a partially cocky tone. Even though Rodrick knew that his uncle would never actually harm him he fought with all his might. With just his sword, Rodrick was just barely on the same skill level as his uncle, but with both sword and shield, Rodrick toppled Jaime's skill tremendously.

Seeing as how Ser Barristan saw that Rodrick had reached his limit with just a sword in hand, he decided to train him in the art of using both sword and shield. Soon, both Rodrick and Ser Barristan found that he had much more natural talent with a shield that just with a sword. After years of training, Rodrick had forced himself to have an almost impenetrable defense during battle, and with the shield that his grandfather had gifted him, Rodrick had become a master in the art of defense. Along with his defense during battle, his talent with a shield was also complimented by his ability to withstand a massive amount of damage as well as having a lot of stamina during a fight. Due to all of this Rodrick had an impregnable defense as well as massive resiliance against his opponent's blows.

A strike from his uncles sword snapped Rodrick from his thoughts as he blocked with his shield before swinging with his sword. Jaime blocked the swing but before he could parry the attack he found the edge of Rodrick's shield hit his face, making him stagger and take a few steps back. While his uncle was caught off guard Rodrick used the oppurtunity to take Jaime out as quickly as possible. Rodrick hit with both his sword, using his blade as well as the bottom of his hilt, and his shield, bashing his uncle to stagger him even more before, eventually, Jaime fell to the ground with Rodrick's strike, knocking him out in the process.

"Sorry about that uncle" Rodrick let out a witty retort as he stood above his uncles unconcious body.

Once he had defeated his uncle Rodrick went to scour who was left on the battlefield. On the other side of the arena was Cregan, not very hard to notice due to his northern-style armor sticking from all the rest. Cregan was succesfully taking on around five other opponents, using both his longsword and his shortsword. Against his opponents Cregan was parrying their attacks and with each hit he would inflict, taking out one of his foes. Rodrick knew he was strong, but winning his little bet against Sansa was going to be a bit more difficult than Rodrick thought.

To Rodrick's far left he could see Oberyn fighting a single opponent, and that opponent was Sandor 'The Hound' Clegane, The Mountains younger brother. The fight continued as Rodrick was once again snapped from his thoughts of thinking who he was going to attack by Ser Beric Dondarrion attacking Rodrick. Before Ser Beric could lay a strike on Rodrick however, he parried Ser Beric's blade with his shield, knocking it from his hands and procceding to knock the knight unconcious with the hilt of his sword.

Soon, Ser Beric was also on the ground unconcious but when he turned around all Rodrick saw were unconcious bodies all across the arena with the only one left standing besides him being Cregan. The Stark knight slowly approached Rodrick until they only about ten feet away from each other. Cregan took off his helmet, revealing that scarred-covered face, cold stare and lifeless expression that Rodrick had grown accustomed to. As Cregan threw away his helmet Rodrick did the same, taking it off and throwing it away, revealing his short black hair that he had cut just yesterday in preparation for the tourney.

"I made a deal with your sister that I could beat you." Rodrick said, keeping up his air of confidence as to hide his nervousness.  
"A bold statement..." Cregan said, his tone being emotionless and constantly in a set expression of nothingness.  
"Perhaps." Rodrick replied, still holding onto that princely act that he would always put on.  
"And an arrogant one at that." Cregan said, raising his blades and fully ready for combat.

Rodrick once again did the same as Cregan as he got into a battle stance. He lifted his shield in front of him and pointed his blade towards Cregan. The Stark knight went into his own form of a dual-wielding stance. The two had just had their first conversation ever since they met and now they began to circle around the small space from which they were apart. While they were circling both of them kept onto their battle stances. This continued before a yell was heard.

"Hit me with your best shot!" Rodrick yelled out, his voice teeming with an amount of confidence that even Rodrick didn't know he possesed.

And right on que, Cregan charged at Rodrick at an almost inhuman speed. Rodrick had his senses in maximum effect though, blocking Cregan's first strike with his shield. Now came the barrage of strikes, Cregan continued his assault by striking with both his longsword and his shortsword. All the while Cregan used his longsword for swinging while using his shortsword for stabbing. His strikes were devastating to Rodrick's defense, but his resiliance started to kick in and, on one of his strikes, Rodrick bashed Cregan with his shield and now, it was his turn to strike. Rodrick first bashed his shield against Cregan once again before swinging with his longsword. Cregan blocked the shield bash with his shoulder while parrying the swing from Rodrick's blade using his shortswords hilt. Rodrick, in a desperate attempt to counter the parry, once again struck Cregan with his shield. This time it seemed succesful as Cregan was staggered and found himself taking a step back before taking up a guard stance to deflect Rodrick's incoming blows. Despite that however, Rodrick used both his sword and shield to attack Cregan and now break his much weaker defense. It seemed to be working, Cregan was staggering more and more to Rodrick's attack, doing the occasional strike back with his swords to make Rodric take a step back.

Whilst their battle continued the wind howled as the crowd continued to cheer, some for The Knight of Winterfell, some for the crown prince.

Rodrick was relentlesly bashing his shield and swinging his sword in an attempt to break Cregan's defense. However, in a move that even Rodrick didn't expect, Cregan ducked under one of Rodrick's swings. As he did that Cregan used his longsword to sweep Rodrick off his footing and down onto the ground. Before he could pin him down however, Rodrick rolled backwards from the ground and jumped back to his feet. His Baratheon blood was enough to give him the strength to do this in heavy plate armor. In response to Cregan's suprise attack, and with him once again charging at Rodrick to close the small distance between them, Rodrick bashed his shield once more as soon as Cregan was close enough. Instead of staggering however, Cregan spun aroud Rodrick mid-sprint and was now behind Rodrick. As Cregan swung his blade, Rodrick parried the attack with his sword but the impact sent his longsword flying from his hand. Now, all he had was his shield, and it also didn't last long. Cregan assaulted Rodrick with dozens of strikes in a very limited time. Rodrick did his best to block it all, but soon, he found himself unable to continue on.

Eventually, Rodrick staggered from one of Cregan's blows and fell to the ground. Before he could get up however, he was met with Cregan's longsword aimed directly between his eyes. "Yield?" Cregan said in his monotone voice, staring directly at Rodrick while he continued to point his sword at his opponent.

Rodrick took a long sigh before accepting defeat, "I yield..." he said in a quiet voice.

As he said that Cregan removed the blade from his face and, in turn, offered Rodrick a hand to get, something that he gladly accepted. Cregan spoke no words, he only looked him in the eyes, narrowing them slightly, before leaving the arena, the last man standing and the champion of the meele. Rodrick was now alone in the arena, defeated and among dozens of unconcious bodies.

 **The Following Day, Early Afternoon...**

Rodrick had made a bet and intended to fullfil it. He was ready to admit his defeat but he was sure that Sansa would be holding this over his head for quite a while. Walking throughout the halls of The Red Keep Rodrick was going to his and Sansa's usual meeting spot, in the gardens. After a few more moments of walking Rodrick had finally made his way to the gardens. He spent the next few minutes actually looking around for where Sansa was. He walked around the many flowers, vines and terraces until he heard a familiar voice.

Turning around a corner Rodrick saw Sansa, in the same light-blue dress as she was three day ago and inspecting the many flowers that the gardens had to offer. Sansa was humming some sort of song, Rodrick didn't know what it was, but he knew he liked it. Not wanting to interuppt her Rodrick just looked at Sansa while she hummed and inspected the flowers. Just now did Rodrick realise her singing voice was amazing, unlike any he had heard before. Then again he didn't have a chance to hear many other people sing. During his childhood, Rodrick's mother would constantly sing to him and Rodrick would always found her voice so soothing, but this was different. Sansa's voice was more enchanting than anything, the voice of a songbird.

However, not wanting her to think Rodrick was staring at her he lightly coughed to interrupt Sansa, something which he emediately regretted. Sansa emediately spun towards Rodrick, slightly scared by the sudden sound. However when she saw it was only Rodrick she emediately calmed down and gathered her posture.

"How long were you standing there?" Sansa said in an annoyed tone.  
"Long enough to hear your little song." Rodrick teased the Stark girl a little bit for fun.  
"Oh very funny." Sansa's annoyance was now growing larger by the second.

To her displeasure Rodrick only slightly chuckled before taking a few steps closer, keeping his hands behind his back as if he was hiding something.

"So?" Sansa asked as she placed her hands on her hips and raised her brow, she wanted to enjoy what was coming next.  
To her words Rodrick let out a sigh before speaking, "Fine... you were right..." he said reluctantly.  
"Ah... like music to my ears." Sansa let out a giggle, her words being quite ironic due to the situation she was in just a few seconds ago.

"Well, looks like you fullfilled our little deal then." Sansa said, now clasping her hands together and going back to her lady-like posture and tone. However, she was suprised to what Rodrick did next.

"Not quite yet..." Rodrick said, revealing what he was hiding in his hands all this time. He reached out his left hand and opened up his palm to reveal what was inside it. In Rodrick's palm was gold and silver necklace, the colors intertwining like two waves in a river, the pendant itself was round and had a blue amethyst in it's center, just like Sansa's eyes.

When she saw the necklace Sansa's eyes widened, almost as if she forgot about the second part of their deal, but Rodrick didn't forget. He would have to thank Varys later for finding him this necklace.

"Rodrick... what is this?" Sansa finally managed to part the words from her lips as she took the necklace from Rodrick's hand.  
"A necklace from Lys..." Rodrick put it bluntly before continuing, "... that's not all, look inside the pendant".

Sansa did just that, opening the miniscule lock the pendant had only to open the inside and see the Stark direwolf engraved inside the pendant. When she saw that Sansa was left both speechless and breathless at the same time. For the next few moments Sansa merely stared at the necklace, as a bright glow in her beautiful blue eyes appeared. "Do you like it?" Rodrick asked, desperate for a response from Sansa.

She then lifted her head from the necklace and flicked her eyes to Rodrick, her devious grin from just a few moment ago was replaced by an innocent smile that almost melted Rodrick's heart. Sansa said nothing, she only leaned in and kissed Rodrick on the cheek before embracing him and wrapping her arms around Rodrick. "I love it..." she whispered to him, her voice teeming with utter joy and a form of suprise. Not only did the hug suprise Rodrick, but her sudden kiss shocked him to no end.

Rodrick was dead silent, not saying a single word, only returning Sansa's embrace and wrapping his arms around her as well. Through the hug Rodrick thought of how this was probably the most confusing days in his life, and one of the happiest in his life.

 **Note:**

 **I'm back from Georgia bitches and I'm bringing a massive chapter with me!**

 **So this had Rodrick and Sansa going further in their relationship, a massive tournament with many changes from the original story, Robert being a baddass, and me revealing one of Rodrick's 'strongest' traits, his almost inpenetrable defense. The reason I made Rodrick so good with a sword and shield is because in these other six chapters I mainly focused on Rodrick's negative traits, but now I reveal that there's still hope for the little Stag, both as a warrior... and as other things (if you catch my drift *wink* *wink*).**

 **For all you RPG player think of it like this. Rodrick is the tank, who will basically block all the damage. Cregan is the duelist, who will deal massive amounts of damage in a short amount of time. Jaime and Barristan are swordsmen, who are pretty balanced out in both offense and defense. And Robert is a juggernaut, who wields two-handed weapons and mainly focuses on strength. Now I just need a druid like fighter and my perfect fantasy team WILL FINALLY BE COMPLETE (and I think all of us know just the deadman with cold hands)**

 **EH... EH... 'deadman' SEE WHAT I DID THERE... I'll stop now.**

 **If you guys managed to get through my awful pun then please leave you thoughts and reviews. Am I taking Sansa's and Rodrick's relationship too fast? Should I slow down a bit? Do you guys want Cregan and Rodrick to interact a bit more? Do you guys want to see more of The Royal Family and how they changed in this AU?**

 **One last thing, what are your guys suggestion for what I should name Rodrick's shield? YOU DECIDE**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	8. Chapter 7: The Long Summer's Evening

**Chapter 7: The Long Summer's Evening**

The next few days after the tournament in her fathers honor Sansa had mainly kept to herself, not really speaking to many people. Of course this wasn't seen as uncommon in King's Landing, the city filled to the brim with deceitful politicians, not suprisingly, didn't have too many trustworthy people in it, and Sansa's brother Cregan had imprinted that fact in her head long before they even started to travel to the capital. However, that wasn't the reason Sansa wasn't talking to many people. A few days ago, after the tournament, Rodrick had given her a necklace. She didn't know why Sansa did what she did, the necklace was beautiful and frankly, Sansa felt like a little girl that was getting a shiny baubble for the first time in her life. So she acted out of instinct, forgeting her lady-like manners, and so she hugged Rodrick... and kissed him.

In reality she felt extremely tense hugging the prince, not that Rodrick helped with that fact. The moment she kissed him Sansa could feel all of Rodrick's muscles tighten. Of course it was awkward, but Sansa didn't really know any other way to respond. At least now, Sansa was completely sure of her opinion of Rodrick. For all that time, all of their conversations and little walks, Sansa kept her suspiciouns of the prince to herself, but a lot of those suspicouns were erased on the way to King's Landing, when Rodrick saved her siblings from that massive bear. Now Sansa had a slight admiration for him, and even if she didn't want to admit it, Sansa did find Rodrick charming in his own sense.

It was morning and the Starks were having a family breakfast, something that was not to common since they left Winterfell due to their fathers position as Hand and with everyone usually just keeping to themselves. Sansa never liked friction between her family, she didn't like any of her siblings being mad at each other, she didn't even like when she herself was mad at any of them. Despite their constant bickering, Sansa did have some envy for her younger sister Arya, she was the second daughter so she didn't have as many responsibilities as Sansa herself, but she was still a lady, and a lady should always act as properly as possible. That was all Septa Mordane's teachings running around in her head though, Sansa didn't really have any problems with her younger sisters behaviour.

Across the table there was a number of different exotic foods, something that was supposedly a normal thing in the capital. Throughout the table there were many different types of bread, a few pieces of bacon, two types of foreign juices, one from Pentos, the other from Braavos, and a couple cases of sweets, the only case Sansa was focusing on however was the lemoncakes.

Sansa and Lyarra sat next to each other while Arya and Bran sat opposite of them across the table. Their father sat at the head. Alongside the Stark children were their direwolves, Lady, Summer, Nymerya and Sif. Lady was sitting vigilantly besides Sansa's chair. Nymerya and Summer were bouncing around the room, playing together. And Sif was merely laying on the floor and sleeping, as lazy as ever. Despite this being a family breakfast, Cregan was still absent from breakfast, something that wasn't that uncommon for him. While they were eating, Sansa could see Sif keeping one eye open at the entrance of their dining room, waiting for Cregan to enter through it. While it was typical for him to avoid any sort of human interaction with really anybody, Sansa had hoped Cregan would have put up at least a little effort to spend some time with his family.

"Where's Cregan?" Bran finally adressed what everyone was thinking. Instead of an answer though, everyone just shrugged unknowlingly, even their father didn't know. At the mention of his masters name, Sif emediately perked up his head and ears, thinking that he was somewhere in the room, but eventually the little spark of hope in the wolf's eyes faded and Sif went back to sleep.

"Has anyone seen Cregan recently?" their father asked, but receiving the same answer as Bran's question, unknowing shrugs. While their father didn't seem troubled by their answers nor did he seem worried for his son, Eddard was still Cregan's father, and a father always has to worry for his children's safety.

"I bet he's with the Tyrell girl." Arya said with a smirk, resulting in everyone at the table looking at her. Bran shared in Arya's smirk, as did Sansa, while Lyarra only looked confused to what she was saying. Eddard quickly shut down Arya's little joke with his cold stare but even he couldn't hide his amusement as the same smirk parted from his lips.

Sansa admited to herself that her sister did know how to make her laugh sometimes, whenever her jokes didn't involve her own humiliation. As the smiles slowly faded and everyone started to eat again, Sansa felt a slight tug on her sleeve. It was Lyarra, looking at her with her amethyst blue eyes. "Why would he be with The Tyrells?" she whispered as if she was supposed to know why. Sansa merely gave her a smile as she placed a hand on her little head.

"Don't worry sweetie, you'll find out when you're older." Sansa reassured her.

As the breakfast continued their father abruptly stood up, wiped his hands and finished his glass of wine. "I have to get to the Small Council meeting. Sansa, keep an eye on your brother and sister. Lyarra, we'll meet up for your studies later today." everyone nodded to what Eddard said and thus he left the room, leaving Sansa, Arya, Bran and Lyarra alone to finish their breakfast.

Their meal continued on quite uneventfully until, finally, Cregan had entered through the door of their dining hall, wearing nothing but a white tunic, brown pants and leather boots. Cregan's expression, like always, was completely neutral all the time. The moment he entered the hall however, Sif jumped to his feet, ran towards Cregan and thus started jumping at his feet. No matter how lazy that direwolf was, it could always spare it's energy to welcome it's master. As Sif jumped up and down at his feet Cregan knelt down to scratch the direwolf's ear to calm him down. After a few moments Sif finally used up all his energy and stopped jumping up and down at Cregan's feet, allowing him to sit at the table in peace.

"So where have you been?" Sansa asked, narrowing her eyes towards Cregan.  
"I was preoccupied with other matters..." Cregan put it bluntly.  
"Oh is that how you reffer to women now, 'matters'?" Sansa joked, crossing her arms at the same time.

Cregan remained silent for a moment. During their conversation he was picking up a glass of water and was ready to eat his breakfast, but his sisters words made him stop all that. He stopped everything, locked eyes with his sister and stared at her for a few moments, probably trying to figure out what she was talking about. Not wanting to waste time anymore Cregan sighed and finally spoke up. "Alright, what are you talking about now?" Cregan asked, the annoyance in his tone as obvious as it could be.

"Oh don't tell us you weren't with Margaery Tyrell all night." Arya joined in her sisters teasing.

If this were Robb or Jon they would have immediately denied everything in embarasment, but not Cregan, that just wasn't his style. "Says the girl who eyes my squire all the time." Cregan gave out a witty retort, something that wasn't all to common for him. Arya started blushing slightly at her brothers statement, only proving his point correct.

"I do not!" Arya yelled out, her cheeks going even more rozy red.  
"You're just proving my fact even more..." Cregan said.

The two continued to bicker for an impressive amount of time before Cregan shut Arya up just by how right he actually was. While they were arguing however, Sansa, Bran and Lyarra watched in amusement at Arya's little hissy fit. Usually, The Stark throwing a hissy fit was Sansa due to her younger sisters many traps which mostly led to Sansa being embarassed in some way or the other. But as entertaining and fresh as the sight of Arya falling for someone was Cregan apparently didn't think the same. A few seconds after their little argument ended Cregan turned his head back to Sansa and spoke up.

"To answer you question at the start, I was looking into the death of our former Hand of The King, Jon Arryn." Cregan then pulled out a small letter that was in his pocket. The letter itself was sealed in an insignia, thirty or so black studs surrounded by some strange runes and the wax seal itself had a brown color to it, while the seal was hard to see and overall hard to familiarize Sansa could recognise it, the seal of House Royce, one of the more powerfull houses of The Vale.

"Cregan, is that-..." before Sansa could finish her sentence she was interrupted by Cregan.  
"Aye, a letter from House Royce." Cregan said with his usual emotionless tone.

"Why would House Royce send you a letter?" Bran asked, his curiosoty finally getting the better of him. Out of all of them, Bran was definitely the one who was most educated in all the houses of Westeros and in truth, Sansa could tell Bran enjoyed learning more about Westeros. To his words however, Cregan said nothing to Bran, only staring at him for a few moments before closing his eyes and sighing.

"Wish I could tell you Bran, but I can't." Cregan said solemnly before turning to everyone else, "Sansa, I need to talk to you for a moment".  
"Can it-" Sansa tried to stall her twin from leaving so she can at least finish her breakfast but to no avail.  
"No, it can't, now come on..." Cregan said and the two left the room with Arya, Bran and Lyarra sitting there in confusion.

The two left the room and walked to Sansa's own chambers. The moment they entered Cregan took one last look outside before shutting the door once he made sure that they weren't followed. During their entire walk Sansa was confused, first it was the letter then it was all this secrecy. Sansa knew of King's Landing and how secrets were the difference between life and death here, her knowledge of the capital only increased thanks to her and Rodrick's many talks while walking in the gardens. Cregan was always honest with Sansa, no matter what the topic would have been but even still, she knew there were many things Cregan was hiding from her.

"Cregan what is this all about?" Sansa asked after Cregan closed the door of her chambers.

Cregan stared at Sansa for a few seconds before walking up to her and pulling the letter back out of his pocket and handing it to Sansa. As she took the letter Sansa merely looked at Cregan in confusment. "Read it..." Cregan said, putting it as bluntly as he ever does. Listening to him Sansa unsealed the letter, breaking the sigil of House Royce before she started to read the contents of the letter.

 _My Lords and Ladies Stark,_  
 _I write this letter to inform you of the danger of the capital,_  
 _You must not trust anyone with the information that I am about to give you,_

 _Lord Jon Arryn did not die a natural death, he was poisoned,_  
 _Although I do not know who has commited this act, I urge you the utmost caution,_  
 _No doupt there are many enemies who would likely see you all dead,_  
 _I will keep you all informed on anything I find,_

 _May The Old Gods watch over all of you,_  
 _Lord Yohn Royce of Runestone_

After reading this Sansa once again looked up and locked eyes with her twin, her stare one of pure confusion. "Cregan, what is this?" Sansa asked only to be meet by her brothers cold stare. Without warning Cregan took the letter from her hands and started to rip it into shreds. Sansa could do nothing but watch as her brother destroyed a seemingly important piece of information. "What are y-" before she could finish Sansa found Cregan's hand over her mouth to stop her from yelling at the top of her lungs.

"I need you to just listen to me." Cregan whispered, slowly removing his hand from Sansa's mouth as she nodded in response. Cregan then moved away from his sister before continuing, "I've been looking into this for some time now, in fact I was suspicious just from the start when I heard the news." the more things Cregan said the more Sansa was getting confused but even still, she let him continue. "No man that was in such perfect health would not have been taken by a fever in so little time".

"Cregan, why are you receiving letters from House Royce of all houses?" Sansa asked, letting her curiosoty get the better of her. Despite it being a rarety, houses whose members have First Men blood existed in The South. House Royce is regarded as one of the more distuinguished and honorable houses in The Vale. Perhaps the connection with the blood of the First Men was what made Cregan communicate with them.

"Listen to me Sansa, the information I just gave you was more than I should have, even father doesn't know about this yet. You musn't talk about this to anyone else, not Arya, not Bran, not even father. This information needs to be just between us or we will all be in danger. Do you understand?" Sansa stayed silent, not being able to take in all of this information. Every possible thought ran through her mind. Those thoughts were snapped from her mind though when Cregan grabbed her by the arm and forced her to look back at him. "Do you understand?!" Cregan said, his voice for once brimming with emotion.

"I-... I understand..."

 **Note:**

 **Here's just a short little chapter I wrote to not keep you guys waiting even longer. I think we all can agree that two weeks is a more than enough waiting time. Next chapter however... we'll... let's just say I'm planning something very big and in the next chapter the "real" story begins.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	9. Chapter 8: The Long Summer's Evening 2

**Chapter 8: The Long Summer's Evening 2**

Many of The Small Council members were split on the topic of today's meeting. After the tournament cleaning up King's Landing was nothing new for all the members, in fact, Ned had heard it became more repetitive due to Robert's tendency to throw a tourney for almost anything. Be it a nameday, a royal welcome or an appointment for a place of office, Robert would hold a tournament for it. One would think this was a massive waste of finances but, suprisingly enough, Robert would never waste more money than The Crown was receiving, which was quite a lot.

Tournaments were not the topic of conversation today though. Recently, word had reached Robert that Vyserys and Daenerys Targaeryen were hiding away in Pentos and, if the rumors prove true, Vyserys plans to marry his sister off to one of the most powerfull men in Essos, Khal Drogo. From what Eddard had heard of the Dothraki Khal he possesed the largest Khalassar in known history, counting up to around 100,000. Those 100,000 were just his Khalassar however, reports also said that, after marrying Daenerys, Khal Drogo will gather all of the other Khal's and their Khalassars under Vyserys's banner and sail to Westeros.

Robert, understandably, was furious when he first heard the news but quickly regained his composure after breaking a couple vases and silverware in his own chambers. Rodrick, who was now once again attending The Small Council meetings seeing as his wound have fully healed, took the news far better than his father but was still noticably disturbed by the news. Stannis and Ser Davos had kept their opinions mainly to themselves so Eddard couldn't really figure out what they thought of the situation. Lord Varys, who brought the news to everyone thanks to his 'little birds', was completely calm and collected about the information he had received which was not very suprising due to his usually neutral behaviour about everything and anything, which is exactly why Eddard still couldn't trust The Master of Whispers.

Currently everyone was in The Tower of The Hand and sitting in their respective positions of the table. Robert sat at the head of the table with Eddard to his right and Rodrick to his left. More towards the right were Stannis and Ser Davos while to Rodrick's left were Grand Maester Pycelle and Lord Varys. Currently, the only member still absent from The Small Council meeting was Lord Tyrion who was still occupied in his little travels to The Wall.

"Lord Varys, what else do you know about the location of the Targaryen children?" Robert asked, looking away from the current report Varys had given him.

The Spider nodded and snapped his fingers to have a small child, around the age of ten, come rushing in from the shadows. Everyone seemed suprised by this but Eddard was the most noticably shocked of them all. He knew of Lord Varys's massive system of spies that would span all across the capital, Westeros and even in Essos, but for one to be in The Small Council chambers, listening in on them, it was a disturbing thought. "What have you heard little bird?" Varys spoke in his lavender filled voice, a tone Eddard dreaded by just how soothing it sounded.

The 'little bird' said nothing, it only handed a letter engraved by Lord Varys's own sigil which was, not suprisingly, a spider in a field of webs. Once the child handed the letter to Varys he handed the letter over to Robert for him to open. Robert took the letter and procceded to rip the wax seal before opening the letter and reading it's contents. In the letter was information saying that Daenerys and Vyserys were currently residing in the manor of one Illirio Mopatis, a wealthy Pentoshi nobleman. After reading the letter completely Robert handed it to Eddard for him to read it. Aside from the current location of The Targaryen children it also showed the current numbers of all the Dothraki Khalassars, which counted at 138,000 horse riders, all armed and hungry for a new country to pillage.

"So that dragon bastard plans to conquer Westeros with an army of savages beside him..." Robert spoke up, his hands crossed and his back leaned on his chair, his grim tone clearly expressing his attitude towards what he had just read. As he spoke up all of The Small Council turned to their king, by now all of the chambers were dead silent, the only sound being Robert's words. "... I should hunted them all down when I had the chance." Robert grumbled as he rubbed his brow in both rage and annoyance, still keeping to his grim and dark tone which didn't help to ease the current tention in the room.

All of The Small Council members were silent, probably not knowing what to say in this kind of situation. Even Eddard couldn't utter a word but in truth, he was only expecting what Robert was going to say next. Before the king could say another word however, Prince Rodrick spoke up.

"The two are in Pentos, am I correct Lord Varys?" Rodrick asked.  
"Correct my prince." Varys nodded in response to Rodrick's question.

Everyone turned their heads from the king to the prince then, looking at him with confusion at what he was going to say. Even Robert seemed to be looking at his son with expectation of what he was saying. "Pentos has traded with The Crown before and, besides Bravoos, it was one of the few Free Cities the would do so regularely." Rodrick continued, much to everyone's confusion. "If that is so, why would a Pentoshi nobleman risk a war with Westeros just to protect two ex-royal Valyrian refugee's?" Rodrick finally made his point, resulting in everyone to look at him in either agreement or, like Lord Varys, neutrality.

"Perhaps he was bribed, perhaps Vyserys had some contacts, perhaps he was blackmailed or perhaps Vyserys made some sort of deal with Mopatis." Stannis suggested, the attention of all The Small Council members now turned to him. While Eddard couldn't believe a Pentoshi nobleman, who were known to be masters of secrecy and trade, would be blackmailed by the Targaryen 'prince'. However, while blackmail was not a suitable option, bribery or some sort of deal were still an option to consider.

"With all due respect uncle, I doupt 'The Beggar King' could must enough money to bribe a nobleman or even make a deal with him." Rodrick said, his words might have been condescending but his tone was kept so soft that Eddard didn't even consider it an insult or anything of the sort.

"Be that as it may nephew, you must never underestimate you enemy." Stannis made a sort of counter argument to the prince's claim. While Eddard couldn't describe the feeling the two were giving off of each other, he knew that this was merely wordplay for them and, from what his daughter Sansa had said, this seemed to be a normal occurance for the prince and his uncles.

"As entertaining as it is to see that you two are getting along I would like to inform you that if the Targaryen girl is married off to the Khal then then we are going to have a threat of over 100,000 wild savages knocking on our doorstep." Robert interrupted the two's banter, for once sarcasm being in his voice, even if it was overshadowed by annoyance. No matter how happy, careless and sometimes childish Robert would act when not being king, Eddard couldn't help but admit that he did miss the snarky and over-confident Robert from the old days.

"If I may interrupt your grace..." Grand Maester Pycelle spoke for what seemed to be his first words since he entered The Small Council chambers. "...it is true that The Targaryens are a threat, but, there could be a way for us to remove this threat." the maesters words seemed to get Robert's attention as he was now fully listening to Pycelle. "Currently, Vyserys's only bargaining chip is his sister, Daenerys. Without her, Vyserys has nothing to offer the Dothraki nor the Pentoshi nobleman, making him 'The Beggar King' once again." Pycelle explained.

"Are you saying what I think you are Grand Maester?" Ser Davos finally spoke up, obviously already aware of what the maester was implying and through his tone Eddard could tell he was opposed to it.  
"You mean to poison her?" Rodrick caught on quickly after The Onion Knight, leaning towards the table from his chair.  
"It would a painless death..." Pycelle tried to justify but it was clear that both Rodrick and Ser Davos were having none of it, neither was Eddard.  
"Poisoning an innocent girl is the same as stabbing her in the back." Eddard finally spoke up, ending his long silence in The Small Council chambers.  
"My lords, while I understand your protests perhaps this could be our best option in ending a possible war before it even starts." Pycelle again justified his actions as it being for 'the greater good'.

While Eddard couldn't bare to admit it, Grand Maester Pycelle had a legitimate argument to make. Killing the Targaeryen girl would take away all of Vyserys's leverage as well as take away a valuable bargaining chip for The Dothraki. If the girl were to die then there would be no war, no unnecessary death, destruction and all around mayhem. Killing her would be doing the wrong thing for the good reasons, but Eddard didn't believe in doing vile things for the greater good. To do something like this would make him and Robert no better than the same king and dynasty they overthrew almost twenty years ago.

Ser Davos and Rodrick immediately dissaproved of this plan, something Eddard was glad about seeing as how he too was against it. Stannis ultimately remained neutral with his decision, while not being as honorable as Eddard, Stannis did still retain a strong sense of duty and justice that, in the end, had him conflicted on whether or not to agree with maester Pycelle's plans. Varys, while not openly agreeing with the maester, did seem to agree with Pycelle's plans to poison the girl. While most of The Small Council was against this plan it was ultimately up to Robert to decide the girl's fate.

During the whole time Eddard expected Robert to say at least something and give his thoughts, even if Eddard probably knew what they already were. In curiosoty Eddard turned to Robert and saw that he was deep in thought, his palms rested upon his mouth and his eyes shut completely. It was clear that Robert was considering everything about this, but still, Eddard feared that Robert's rage would ultimately get the better of him. For a while Robert just kept his eyes closed and his palms rested on his mouth, he was obviously thinking carefully about what he should say. The silence only continued on and now the entire Small Council, including Rodrick, were looking at Robert for a decision.

Finally, Robert sighed, opened his eyes and spoke up. "We will decide this matter at another time, for now, you are all free to leave." Robert declared, the anticipation ultimately being for nothing now but in a strange sense, Eddard felt relieved that he stalled his decision.

As everyone started to leave Rodrick came up to his father. "Father, please, consider what you would be doing by poisoning her, you'll be no better than them." Rodrick spoke what Eddard had been thinking all along. If his son Cregan had taught him one thing of the capital, it's that people like Rodrick, people who had a sense of morality or judgement, wouldn't last long in King's Landing. Were it not for the his standing as the crown prince Eddard knew Rodrick would have found a dagger in his back as soon as he would enter the capital, that was something Eddard intended to prevent, no matter what.

"I'll think about it son, don't you worry yourself about this old fool." Robert said, looking at his son with a happy yet somewhat tired expression. "Now go, you have lessons to attend to." Robert continued as Rodrick sighed and started to leave. As the prince was leaving Rodrick took one last bow to Eddard as he himself did the same.

Now that Rodrick had left only Eddard and Robert were in the room. Silence befell the entire chamber as Robert sighed and rubbed his brow in annoyance, the stress of being king was clearly weighing on him, Eddard couldn't even imagine doing the same thing like this for almost twenty years. The sheer silence became just awkward at this point, so Eddard looked for a solution.

To his right was a little table with a flagon of wine and around four cups near it. He walked off to the table and poured two cups with wine from the flagon before walking over to the main table where Robert was still sitting in silence. He put one cup on the table right in front of Robert while still keeping the other cup in his hand. After he did that Robert merely moved his fingers from his brow to see what was going. Eddard sat on the table and without a word toasted silently before taking a drink from the cup. Eddard's friend still kept silent for a few seconds before grabbing the cup and looking at the wine for a few seconds.

"I can't right now Ned, The Tyrell 'Queen of Thorns' want an audience with me for something." Robert said as he pushed the cup away from him.  
"What about?" Eddard asked, taking another small sip of wine from his cup.  
"Don't know, probably another attempt to marry off Myrcella to one of the Tyrell boys." Robert said, the annoyance in his tone only rising.  
"They've tried this before?" Eddard continued his semi-interrogation of Robert.  
"Aye, about a dozen or so times..." Rodrick said in both spite and tiredness, his voice not even trying to hide the fact of how tired he truly was.

Eddard saw how distressed his friend was, how tired he was, so an idea came to him. "Tell you what..." Eddard started, sliding Robert's cup closer to him. "... I'll met with The Queen of Thorns, you can rest easy for a day, spend some time with your family." Eddard said, taking another sip of wine. "Besides, you worked hard enough already and I can see you've been tired out by all this business." Eddard once again slided the cup closer and closer to Robert and the temptation of emptying the entire cup was clear in Robert's eyes.

Robert sighed, "Alright you win..." he said as he took the cup and drunk three large gulps of wine from it. Seeing this made Eddard give out a small smile, of all people, Eddard knew how it felt to have an important position thrust upon you so suddenly. Eddard was never meant to be Lord of Winterfell or Warden of The North and he was certainly never meant to be Hand of The King, but Eddard had a duty, and a Stark must always fulfill his duty.

After he had almost gulped down the entire cup of wine, Robert let out a small chuckle. "Funny, I never could have imagined Ned Stark to be the one offering me a drink." Robert once again chuckled, as did Eddard. The two finished their cups of wine, both now taking large gulps. After they finished their cups Eddard once again walked over to the small table where the flagon was and filled both his and Robert's cup with wine once again.

"To our houses..." Eddard toasted with his friend.  
"... may they be strong and prosperous for generations to come" Robert responded and the two drank from their cups.

 **Benjen's POV**

 **Beyond The Wall, Night's Watch Ranging Party...**

Leaving his nephew alone at The Wall was the last thing Benjen wanted to do, but reports were showing that The Wildlings numbers are increasing more and more. Groups and clans once divided now were gathering, for what, Benjen couldn't figure out. As First Ranger his duty was to scout and eliminate any threats to The Night's Watch. Currently, seven full groups of rangers went scouting beyond The Wall and have not returned. This was one of the reasons he was glad that Jon didn't become a ranger, although he did usually trust Lord Commander Jeor's judgement, Benjen felt a bit guilty in suggesting Jon be a steward. In the end, it had to be done and Jon is now safe behind The Wall.

'I hope you'll understand what I did one day nephew.' Benjen thought to himself as he pulled the reins of his horse to halt it.

Beyond The Wall Benjen and his group have been scouting for a total of three days now. They hadn't spotted anything of note, no threats, no dangers, nothing. The Wildlings, supposedly, were retreating back even further North to regroup but even if that was so, Benjen doupted that any of the Wildling clans could last an hour with another one in the same tent. There's a reason for the Wildlings being called the way they are, whenever they had tried to form an army to take over The Wall, they would just fail. There were many Kings Beyond The Wall, yet none of them succeded in keeping their promises. Wildlings had a tendency of fighting amongst themselves, although The Night's Watch wasn't that different these days, what with the thieves, rapists and murderers that would usually fill their ranks now.

In Benjen's group were ten men. Mors, one of the older and more experienced rangers in The Night's Watch. Qhorin Half-Hand, another more experienced ranger, skilled in sabotage and spying. Zwen, a minor merchants son who had joined The Night's Watch willingly. Karl, an assasin from King's Landing who was captured and banished to The Night's Watch. Anden, an ex-soldier who fought during The Greyjoy Rebellion. The others were new recruits, Duncan The Longshanks, Tarwen the Twin, Jorwen the Other Twin and Rannert Skin-Ripper. Not the most welcoming names and titles, but still, Benjen hoped they would have their wits about them when danger was about.

Mors and Qhorin were the ones Benjen knew he could fully trust. The two were both senior members that were fully devoted to The Night's Watch, when trouble would eventually come, Benjen knew he could rely on them. Zwen and Anden were the two he was unsure about. Both had joined The Night's Watch willingly, why, Benjen didn't know. Zwen said that he was looking for a way to redeem his past deeds while Anden refused to speak anything of the sort. While those four became rangers for their skill and prowess in battle, Karl, Duncan, Tarwen, Jorwen and Rannert were chosen because of their sheer deadlyness. Karl would always wear carry two knives with him, a style he was apparently familiar with, Jorwen and Torwen, as their names would suggest, are twins, Torwen was the one with whole brawn and Jorwen was the one with the brain. The two work quite well when their together, but when separated, either of them can be a liability to their fellow rangers. Rannert 'Skin-Ripper' earned his name due to him being a soldier under House Bolton and thus adapting their ways of flaying men alive. Duncan The Longshanks was, like Karl, a former assasin from The Vale.

As Benjen scoured the land in front of him all of his fellow rangers also stopped. The cold was not as strong as it usually was, anywhere else this could have been considered a good thing, but Beyond The Wall, this meant something was wrong, very wrong. Despite it being not as cold, snow still fell as normally as somewhere this far north could be considered as normal, so at least that was encouraging.

"Benjen, what's the hold up?" Mors rode up beside Benjen, his dog running right beside him.  
"I thought I heard something." Benjen said as he continued to scour the horizon for any possible threats.  
"Hmm, I don't see anything..." Mors remarked before turning to his hound, "... you smell anything boy".

The dog sniffed around their current area for a bit. They looked through snow, ran through trees, dug holes through the dirt and checked all possible places where any traps or enemies could be, but nothing. Eventually the dog returned to it's master and barked a few times in denial, probably saying that it found nothing. Even though the dog said so, Benjen knew how easy it was to trick hounds, especially Beyond The Wall, where scent would usually mean nothing to them.

"Benjen, Mors, it's almost night, we have to find shelter quickly." Qhorin was then rode up to both Mors and Benjen.

Just then, Mors seemed to spot something. "Over there, a cave..." Mors yelled out as he pointed towards the cave entrance. Following that, Benjen and Mors rode towards the cave while Qhorin was leading the other six rangers who were all the way behind both Benjen and Mors.

Eventually all of them gathered in the cave. Still suspicious, Benjen had Mors's hound scour the entire cave for Wildlings or any other threats, if they were lucky perhaps they could find an animal hiding in the cave and kill it for food. Despite how good Mors's hound was at sniffing out certain dangers and threats, the dogs sense of smell was off ever since they went Beyond The Wall.

After the cave was secured everyone got to work. Qhorin immediately started to work on a fire, Mors exited the cave to take a piss, Karl and Duncan took all the horses and tied them down so to not escape while at the same time taking and dealing out everyone's daily ration and while they did that Torwen and Jorwen went out to hunt and find some game for everyone to eat. Despite everything seeming safe and sound, Benjen couldn't help and shake off the feeling that he and his fellow rangers are being watched by... something.

Everyone was hard at work. Qhorin had finally gotten the fire up and, for once, Benjen and his group could feel at least some sort of warmth, even if it wasn't much to begin with. While everyone was gathered beside the fire and eating their daily ration, besides Mors who was probably stil trying to find a place to take a piss, Benjen was in front of the cave, his nervousness making him not being able to rest easily in the cave. The newer rangers were completely relaxed beside the warm fire while Benjen and Qhorin were obviously wary of any dangers seeing as how they knew the dangers of this land all to well.

Before he could continue his paranoid scouting however, an arrow and a spear found themselves in Benjen's legs and thighs. Benjen screamed in pain, alarming all of the rangers. Qhorin was the first to react, drawing his blade as all of the others did the same, drawing out their weapons and preparing for battle. Benjen had a spear deep through his ankle and two more arrows on his other leg, he was completely motionless and more importantly, completely vulnerable. Qhorin instantly ran to Benjen, that was a mistake though as he quickly found an arrow lodged in his shoulder and torso. Qhorin tried to pull the arrows from his body, but sadly, it was too late. Before Qhorin could get his senses back to him a spear went flying through the air, grazing Benjen by only a hair before finding itself being lodged inside Qhorin's skull.

Qhorin fell on his back, immediately becoming limp and motionless. "NO!" Benjen yelled out, looking at his friends corpse in shock, his yell bringing the attention of all the remaining rangers. Benjen ripped his eyes apart from Qhorin's corpse to look towards the many trees. From the trees came almost hundreds of wildlings, either yelling profanities and taunts at the rangers or just screaming out battle cries towards the rangers. All he could do is look in shock as his remaining rangers are getting overrun by the hundreds of Wildlings. Zwen and Anden were fighting with all their strength killing as many Wildlings as they could, but their fighting strength was not enough, soon Zwen found a battle axe in his skull and Anden had a spear through his chest. Both quickly fell to the ground and still, Benjen was limp and unable to do anything.

All the time Benjen wanted to prevent all of this, but he couldn't, he struggled, he tried to lodge the arrows and spears out of his legs, but it was useless. He didn't know what was happening but before he knew it, something blunt hit Benjen's head, making him fall down on the ground, his conciousness slowly fading away and the darkness slowly taking him. As his vision slowly faded away and all he could do now is listen Benjen could only hear the screams of his fellow rangers as they are most possibly being brutalized by the Wildlings.

Before he fully went unconcious however, he saw two pairs of feet in front of him. As the two men stood over a limp and nearly unconcious Benjen, another two men lifted him up to his knees, as they lifted him Benjen groaned in sheer pain, the groans were muffled due to the sound of battle behind him. One of the men in front of Benjen wore a full fur suit, his face covered with a robust beard and red hair, the other however, while having the same facial features and hair, had a combination of plate armor covering his torso, arm and legs, while fur covered his shoulders as well as making a hood for the man, making Benjen not being able to see the man's face.

"What do you think we should do with him Kennat?" the man with a red beard and who was in fur spoke.

The other man, Kennat, spoke no words, he only removed his hood to reveal his features for Benjen to see. Kennat had completely dank and droul grey hair with a massive growing beard almost as large as the first man's beard. From his looks Benjen thought of him being either in his late forties or early fifties but then again, Benjen's eyesight was not currently the best. Kennat knelt down towards Benjen and as he did that Benjen prepared and steeled himself for the worst possible death he could think of, he pulled his head to the ground and closed his eyes, hoping his conciousness would leave him before Kennat would do anything, but to no avail. Benjen had begged his mind to let go of him, to let him rest, but once again, to no avail. That was when Benjen realised there was no escaping the pain he was about to experience.

To his suprise though, there was no other pain than the one he was already experiencing. Instead of killing him, Kennat took Benjen's chin and brought his head back up to look at the Wildling leader. Through his murky and foggy vision Benjen saw a pale skin color with two orbs of violet hovering around Kennat's pale skin where his eyes should be. Though he could not tell what it was completely, Benjen could swear he just saw Kennat spread a massive, sadistic smile across his face, the expressions Benjen recognised on Kennat's face only proved his murky vision true however.

"Oh don't you worry, I have many plans for you, little wolf..."

 **Note:**

 **TUN TUN TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN...**

 **Yep people, here we have it, the first of many appearances of Kennat in later chapters. So in the last chapter I said that in this one the "true story" of A Worthy King would begin and that was true. After this chapter it will be completely off any book or show material and will be strictly from my own imagination. The reason I am saying this is because, I don't have anything to work off of so it may take longer for me to write the chapters due to them being semi-sorta-kinda-maybe-completely original to the original GoT and ASOIAF books.**

 **P.S. All credit for Kennat and the idea behind him goes to akoslows who suggested him to me.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	10. Chapter 9: A Family Hunt

**Chapter 9: A Family Hunt**

After the Small Council meeting Rodrick's father informed him they were going hunting, something to do as a family activity, even if Myrcella and Rodrick's mother weren't going hunting for obvious reasons. So off Rodrick went to his room and gather some of his supplies. Nothing too fancy just a skin of water, his hunting spear and the little wooden figurine from Shireen that Rodrick would usually just bring with him anywhere he went. With Rodrick and his father were also Tommen, who was going on his first ever hunt, Ser Barristan and Rodrick's uncle Jaime.

This wasn't Rodrick's first hunt, he and his father had been going hunting ever since Rodrick turned ten. Rodrick wasn't the best at it, but even so, he loved it, if not for the 'thrill of the hunt' then for the fact that it was just a time for him to actually relax and take a deep breath from King's Landing. Rodrick's father would constantly talk about how he and his father would hunt back in The Stormlands. Apparently, no Baratheon is a 'True Stag' until he hunts down his first prey when he comes to age. The day Robert turned 15 he went back to The Stormlands to go on a hunt and, if what Rodrick's father said was true, he killed a massive stag with his warhammer.

Rodrick himself had killed his first game at 10, even if it was by accident. 6 years ago was when Rodrick had went on his first ever hunt. Like today, Ser Barristan and Jaime were also coming along with Rodrick and his father, the only exception being Tommen who was still just an infant at that point. While on the hunt the four got separated, Robert and Ser Barristan were cut off from Rodrick and Jaime. By that time the sun had already begun setting and, despite not wanting to show it, Rodrick was afraid to be in the woods in the dark, even if it was with his Uncle. To Rodrick's obvious fear Jaime merely chuckled and told his nephew that if anything happened, he would protect him. This helped to ease Rodrick a bit, but still, not by much. After something of an hour of pure walking both Jaime and Rodrick were tired. Both of them decided to take a rest but, the moment they sat down, they were attacked.

After they decided to rest, before Jaime could even sit down, both he and Rodrick heard something. Perhaps it was out of instinct, or perhaps Jaime knew they were in danger, but after they heard the sound he immediaetly drew his sword and pointed it to where the sound was coming from. Rodrick's uncle was right in his suspicion as, from the trees, in almost pure darkness, came a pack of wolves. Each one of them snarled at Jaime and Rodrick, clearly hungry and ready for a fresh meal. Jaime instantly stood in front of Rodrick to keep him safe as the wolves slowly started to walk towards the two of them and surround them. Due to his skill in swordsmanship, Jaime was able to both withstand as well as hold off the pack of wolves for quite an impressive time, all the while Rodrick only cowered behind his uncle in fear, frozen in place and not knowing what to do. Rodrick's uncle did all he could to fight back the pack but, unfortunately, one of the wolves finally got the drop on him, attacking Jaime from his side and knocking him to the ground. Jaime struggled to get the wolf off of him, having used most of his strength to kill off the rest of the pack. The wolf that pounced Rodrick's uncle was the largest of his pack, probably the alpha of the pack, and, unfortunately for Jaime, it was also using all of it's strength to kill Jaime.

All the while Jaime was being mauled by the wolf Rodrick only looked at the sight in pure fear. If not for his armor, Jaime would have probably already have been dead instantly when the wolf jumped him. As Rodrick stood in fear his uncle was constantly yelling at him to run, get away from here, get back to The Red Keep. Rodrick was torn, he couldn't just leave his uncle like this, leave him to die by the hands of a savage beast. Rodrick tried to stay strong he refused to leave, causing his uncle to just shout at him louder to stop being arrogant and just run. Even with that though, Rodrick refused, he steeled his nerves, calmed his hands, and readied himself for what he was about to do. Even though Rodrick knew his uncle could probably get out of this situation by himself, Rodrick just couldn't leave him like this. He grabbed his spear and sprinted towards the massive wolf, lunging the spear in the wolfs side. This caused the wolf to stagger off of Jaime, but not kill it. The wolf had been staggered yet Jaime was still on the ground to finish it so it was up to Rodrick to finish it. Rodrick grabbed his knife and, in one blow, stabbed the knife into the wolf's neck and swung it to the sides, slicing the wolf's neck in the process. That was when Rodrick had gotten his first kill.

Once he was done reminising of his first kill on the hunt Rodrick packed his skin of water and spear while putting the small wooden figurine in his pocket. Now that he was fully ready Rodrick started to travel to The Red Keep's outer gate as he was ready to finally leave King's Landing. At the outer gate Robert, Ser Barristan, Jaime and Tommen had already gotten ready and saddled their horses. "Seven Hells Rodrick, how come it always takes you ages to get ready?" Rodrick's father was the first to notice him, commenting on his sons usual late nature.

"I'll answer that question when I find the answer myself father." Rodrick said in his usual soft tone while still having an air of some sort of confidence in it. To Rodrick's comment Robert merely chuckled, patted his son on the back and mounted his horse with the others. Tommen himself was still too young and didn't know how to ride a horse so for now he was going to be riding with Rodrick on the same horse. Robert had a night black stallion with sea blue eyes, a rare combination to find but a mount worthy of a king, he had ridden this same horse for 5 years now whenever he went and, out of endearment, the king called the horse 'Storm'. A silly name Rodrick thought at first but it was not all too strange for people to name their pets after something from either their houses or something that complemented their own personality, just look at the Stark direwolves.

Aside from Robert, Rodrick and Tommen were riding on a fully brown Mare from The Vale. Usually horses from The Vale had been bred for handling rough terrain since the place from where they were bred was full of mountain passes. While Robert, Rodrick and Tommen had fairly different horses, Jaime and Ser Barristan rode completely identical pale white stallions, as do all knights of The Kingsguard. Everyone took one last inspection at their equipment before Rodrick's father interrupted them all with a mighty roar.

"Ride out! If we're lucky we can catch a fine boar and feast all evening!" and with that roar, all of them started to gallop through the outer gate, into King's Landing, and then out of the city.

 **Eddard's POV**

 **King's Landing, The Red Keep, Noon...**

Meeting with The Queen of Thorns proved to be no easy task. Eddard had never considered it at first, but he and Cregan had never really spoken about his time in Highgarden. Of course Eddard always enjoyed when Cregan would come back home and visit from The Reach. That was usually when everyone would just ask him the usual questions. 'How have you been? Have they been treating you well? Is everything alright?' Those were the usual questions concerning him when Cregan would come and visit his family. Aside from that Cregan usually didn't speak much about The Tyrells. Of course there was always Margaery Tyrell who, even with his sons expertise in hiding his emotions, Eddard knew Cregan liked very much. Of course Cregan talked well about all The Tyrell children but Margaery was usually the point of conversation that Cregan would talk about.

As Eddard walked towards the room where The Queen of Thorns was and opened the door. When he opened the door however Eddard did not see only Lady Ollena but also her son, Mace Tyrell. The Queen of Thorns was sitting on a chair while Mace Tyrell was merely wandering around the room, seemingly bored out of his mind. "Lord Tyrell, Lady Ollena." Eddard greeted the two as they spun their heads towards the door, apparently not hearing him enter.

"Lord Stark, this is an unexpected suprise." The Queen of Thorns said in a smooth and elegant tone.  
"Quite, but a welcome one." Lord Tyrell stated, walking over to shake Eddards hand, which he accepted.

After the two had shook hands The Queen of Thorns started to speak again. "We are waiting for the king, could you please tell when he will be meeting with us?" Ollena asked, her tone keeping constant the entire time as she repositioned herself in the chair.

"The King will not be meeting with you I am afraid, he has gone hunting." to Eddards words The Queen of Thorns raised her brow, as if faining suprise, while Lord Mace only stared at the scene, dumbfounded to what Eddard was saying. As he took a seat however Eddard continued. "But if you have any urgent business or news you need to speak of then I will be more than happy to resolve it for The King." this seemed to calm both Ollena and Mace a bit, not strange seeing as how Robert was probably avoiding talking to The Tyrells for quite some time now.

"Very well then," Ollena said as she regained her composure on the chair, "Mace, you can leave now".  
"What? But mothe-" before Mace could say anything else he was cut off by his mothers cold stare and, without a word, proceded to leave.

"You certainly have a grip over your son my lady." Eddard joked after Mace left the room.  
"I do have a tendency of controlling brainless morons." Ollena said, probably without a hint of humor.  
"That is quite harsh don't you think?" Eddard asked, slightly taken back by her attitude.

"Oh please, you yourself can see how much of an idiot Mace is. My only gratitude is that my grandchildren haven't inherited any of my sons stupidity." Eddard heard Ollena's words and thought about it for a moment. None of the current line of Tyrells have had the characteristic traits that would usually follow their family. In The Tyrell family, the women would usually be the main power due to the men not really having the... best intelligence. However, unlike the usual norm for the family the current generation of Tyrells seemed to only have the positive traits of their blood. From what little he could gather from Cregan, all of The Tyrell children were shrewd and cunning while also keeping a certain kind and gentle nature to themselves. Obviously The Queen of Thorns embodied the shrewdness and cunning side while her husband probably carried the stupid yet slightly simpathetic side of them.

"So, Lady Ollena, what did you want to talk about?" Eddard finally asked, ending the silence between the two.

"Ah yes, well you see for the past few weeks we have been busy on the construction of new roads for The Crownlands, The Westerlands and The Reach that would eventually interconnect with all three realms." as Ollena said that Eddard thought it not a bad idea, it would certainly help both trade and travel through the realms. "Now, this has all been under the approvement of The Crown as well as from Lord Tywin and so far the construction has gone well enough. However, as we were building these roads we had come to the idea we also build a path to The Stormlands but ultimately, it can only be done by both The Crowns as well as The Lord Paramounts approval. Lord Renly has of course already agreed with building the roads but in the end, it comes up to decision of The Crown". The whole time Lady Ollena had been talking Eddard listened closely. At first the answer seems obvious, the roads would help commerce and travel, but as Eddard quickly learned from his time in the capital, everyone always has different motives.

"Hmm... very well Lady Ollena, I will consult with The King about this situation. Personally I believe that this is a good idea but as you said it is ultimately up to The King himself to decide upon this. As soon as I get an answer from his I will be sure to infrom you at once my lady, I assure you." Eddard said, keeping his tone constant and as regal as he could make it. To his words The Queen of Thorns let a miniscule smile escape from her lips, she was seemingly pleased with the answer she was given but something told Eddard that he was not done here.

"Very good Lord Stark." Ollena said, keeping her smile before continuing. "But since you are here I wanted to talk to you about another matter. A matter concerning your son and my granddaughter." this had caught Eddards attention almost instantly. He had always known of Cregan's attraction to Margaery Tyrell and Eddard assumed the girl thought of him the same way.

Either this could be a marriage agreement, or something else, Eddard couldn't tell.

 **Rodrick's POV**

 **The Woods, Outside King's Landing, Late Noon...**

After galloping through the capital and almost trampling past many merchants, farmers and peasants alike, Robert, Rodrick, Tommen, Jaime and Ser Barristan were now slowly riding throughout the woods. Robert and Ser Barristan were keeping themselves fairly calm so they could listen out for any potential game while Rodrick and Tommen couldn't really help hiding their excitement. Tommen was excited because this is his first ever hunt while Rodrick was mainly excited because of the fact his little brother is going with him. Jaime mainly kept beside his nephews, keeping a close eye on both of them which wasn't that hard due to them riding on the same horse. While Rodrick, Jaime and Tommen were riding together Robert and Ser Barristan mainly kept forward of the entire group.

"How does it feel Tommen, going out on your first hunt?" Jaime broke the silence between the three.  
"It's exciting..." Tommen replied to his uncles question, absolutely shaking from excitement.  
"Easy now little brother, don't want you falling off the horse now." Rodrick joked, grabing Tommen tightly so he doesn't actually fall off the horse.

Tommen was always an innocent child, ever since he was born many things would easily make the little bundle smile. Rodrick would never forget the days when Tommen and Myrcella were born. On the days of their birth Rodrick held both Myrcella as well as Tommen. When he first held Myrcella Rodrick couldn't help but smile at the small blue eyed baby staring back at him with a little smile on her lips. The same was with Tommen. Even now, all Rodrick can see is in his younger siblings is innocence and kindness. Myrcella is still the lovable little princess that she is while Tommen remains as pure as a child in this world could be.

"Say, Rodrick, what do you think is taking Tyrion so long from coming back to the capital?" Jaime asked, as protective of his own little brother as ever.

Jaime and Tyrion had always been protective of one another, something that Rodrick respected out of his uncles. It was fully clear to Rodrick why everyone hated his uncle Tyrion, not just his own family. Everyone always talked about Tyrion behind his back and, through all those years in The Red Keep, Rodrick could hear a lot of those conversations. Many upstuck nobles calling him a monster and usually mocking him just for being a dwarf. That was the main thing that bothered Rodrick, he must have heard more dwarf jokes than any other type of joke there is. Everyone would always think that whenever they would make a dwarf joke that they were the only person to ever make a dwarf joke.

"I can't say for certain, but there's one thing we both know for certain-" Rodrick said, already looking at Jaime who was laughing.

"You're right, he's probably having the best day of his life."

 **Tyrion's POV**

 **The North, Somewhere in The Wolfswoods, Time Unknown...**

 _'This is probably one of the worst days of my life...'_ Tyrion thought to himself as he was dragged by two men in full leather and fur armor by the arms. The moment he regained his conciousness Tyrion could feel a massive pain in his head, as if something, or someone, had hit him over the head so hard to knock him unconcious. Just at that moment, Tyrion remembered what had happened to him as well as the group that was travelling with him.

After Tyrion had visited The Wall and completed his noble task of pissing off the edge of The Wall he was ready to go back to the capital. With him were ten Lannister guardsmen as well as a Night's Watch recruiter named Yoren. Tyrion had always wondered what life in The Night's Watch was, now he knew, and reality far outweighed the stories. When he had first arrived at Castle Black Tyrion had found only a small handfull of Night's Watch members with the majority of them being simple killers, thieves and rapists. Of course there was the usual knight or second son that made up the upper part of The Night's Watch.

At Castle Black was where he met Yoren, The Night's Watch recruiter for Castle Black. Out of all the people in Castle Black Tyrion found Yoren to be the only with a sense of humor therefore making him the most decent company he had in that wretched castle. When he had been returning from The Wall however, Tyrion's party as well as Yoren's smaller party of Night's Watchmen were ambushed and defeated by a mysterious group of outlaws. Tyrion was quickly knocked out as soon as his party was ambushed soo he did not see clearly who was attacking them.

Tyrion thought hard about who could have attacked some fifteen or so heavily armed men and succeded. It could have been mere bandits, it could have been some outlaws looking for fresh loot, it could have been wildlings Beyond The Wall. With every thought Tyrion's head hurt even more. That pain only increased however when he was snapped from his thoughts by the two men who were carrying Tyrion throwing him to the ground and closing some kind of door behind him as they left. Tyrion, after a few moments, looked around to see where he was, there was little light and that didn't help due to his vision already being very blurry as it is.

He was in some sort of cell, it meant these men were at least a little formulated. Perhaps they were aiming to keep Tyrion as a hostage and ransom him. 'At least now I can finally figure out how much I'm worth.' Tyrion joked with that thought in his mind, while getting back to his feet. In the room were two other people. From the lack of light it was hard to make out who the two people were but Tyrion could recognise one of them. Yoren was pacing left and right around the cell, already looking for a way out. The other person in the cell however, Tyrion couldn't recognise.

"It's good to see you're still alive Lannister." Yoren said, finally noticing who the two guards threw in the cell.  
"I can say the same for you Yoren." Tyrion said as he tried to regain his footing so he can stand straight.  
"Did you two see who was attacking us?" Yoren immediately asked the two people in the cell.

The man who Tyrion couldn't recognise only shrugged while Tyrion himself did the same. After that Yoren continued to pace throughout the cell, searching for a possible way out. Now that Tyrion had regained his composure, he took his time to process his surroundings but more importantly, get a read on the stranger. The man had a scruffed face, long black hair reaching down to his neck as well as a thick dark stubble. From his appearance the man looked like a mercenary or a sellsword. From his expression the man didn't seem particularely hostile, nor did he seem to be one of The Night's Watchmen.

Since the man didn't pose any immediate threat to him or Yoren then what Tyrion should be focusing on now is how to escape. If these people were planning to ransom off Tyrion to his family then he seriously worries for his safety in case his father refuses to pay the ransom. Of course there was always the possibility of Jaime riding to his rescue but that was a far cry to reality. From what Tyrion could gather he, Yoren and the sellsword were still somewhere in The North, possibly in the wolfswoods due to him being able to see trees through the window of their cell.

One thing was certain however, the three of them have to escape, no matter what.

 **Note:**

 **Alright people, after two long weeks of waiting (or maybe three weeks, hell if I know) we are finally back to this story with Chapter 9.**

 **So originally I was planning to reveal who the mysterious sellsword with Tyrion and Yoren was but I thought it would be better to let people dwell on it and come to their own conclusions before I reveal it. After the two or three week long break from this story as well as the general absence of updates these last few weeks I do promise you guys that I will be updating my stories more regularely.**

 **This chapter was mainly all over the place, first with Rodrick, then to Ned, then back to Rodrick and then to Tyrion. Just a quick heads up for you guys, the next few chapters are mainly going to be Rodrick interacting with other characters mainly because, till now, all we have seen of him is interacting with either Sansa, Ser Barristan or his father so yeah expect some more interactions from that. In terms of the scene between The Queen of Thorns and Ned I mainly wrote that because I thought it would be fun to see these two interact a little as, in both show and books, there are many characters who we want to interact with each other but they never do because they either die or are on the other side of the world.**

 **Now on to the thing between Cregan and Margaery, yeah it's just a small little side romance in this story but for all you readers of Demon of The North you will understand the relationship between the two a bit more. Something that I remember someone asking is why haven't the two already married since they are both old enough to marry already at the beggining of the story. The main reason that the two keep their relationship "secret" is because The Starks would almost never marry a member of their family to a southern house or a house that doesn't have First Men blood in their veins. Same thing goes for The Tyrells, they usually don't marry any houses outside of The Reach. In the end it's all a matter of tradition as well as the two knowing that their parents wouldn't approve of a marriage like that.**

 **So yeah that's enough of me rambling, next chapter we see the conclusion to Ollena's and Eddard's discussion as well as Tyrion's grand escape.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	11. Chapter 10: The Demon and The Rose

**Chapter 10: The Demon and The Rose**

Margaery looked over at the horizon as her eyes slightly squinted at the sun's rays. Her room had been located where she could admire the sunset as well as the shore of King's Landing. It was not as lavish as her room in Highgarden but seeing as it was just a simple guest room it was acceptable. The room itself had all the requirements of a noblewoman's quarters. A slightly lavish bed, a decorated chest with all of Margaery's personal belongings, a wardrobe, a small table, a mirror and another chest for other items that weren't considered 'personal'.

The sun only continued to set as time passed. And while the sun's glow slowly started to fade all Margaery could think of is when they would return to Highgarden. Of course being in the capital was a pleasant experience. The once rotten and almost ruined King's Landing had been completely transformed into a respectable capital. Of course King's Landing is almost nothing compared to the other capitals of Westeros's realms. Casterly Rock and Highgarden were both more prosperous and ten times more beautiful than King's Landing.

Of course King's Landing wasn't all that bad. While Casterly Rock has it's gold mines and Highgarden has it's fertile grounds and crop fields, King's Landing now was surely the most diverse city in Westeros. Not only were their dozens of foreign merchants and travelers coming to the capital every day but almost every other part of King's Landing was different. Of course the city itself wasn't the only reason she enjoyed her stay. Through her time in King's Landing Margaery has also had a chance to spend more time with Cregan. And as short as their moments together were, Margaery couldn't help but treasure what little time they could spare.

Despite it being painfully obvious, many people still didn't believe the two weren't in a secret relationship or at least fancied each other. Of course this could have been because of Margaery own behaviour, constantly acting like the perfect, beautiful and innocent girl people expected her to act like. In the end Margaery had to thank her grandmother for teaching her how to act like this, although Margaery doupted her grandmother thought she would be using those acting skills for this kind of purpose.

As time slowly continued to pass Margaery was snapped from her thoughts by the sound of a door opening. At that Margaery turned her head towards the sound where she saw one of her handmaidens, Myra, standing at the door to her chambers. "My lady, your grandmother is requesting your presence in her quarters." Myra said in her usual soft and meek tone.

"Very well, I'll be there shortly." Margaery answered her handmaiden.  
"Would you like me to accompany you my lady?" Myra asked before Margaery could send her away.  
"No it's quite alright Myra, you don't have to." Margaery once again answered.  
"As you wish my lady." Myra said, bowing to Margaery before closing the door behind her and leaving the room.

Myra was a good girl, loyal and honest, something that would counted as a rarity in this type of enviroment. Many were against having a northener being the handmaiden of Mace Tyrells only daughter but, knowing how northerners were basically the same as everyone else, all of The Tyrells themselves didn't have any problems with the idea. It was actually suprising how much prejudice there was from The South when it comes to The North. Brainless savages was one of the words tipically used when southerners would try and describe northern people. Frankly it made Margaery mad to the bone, so much so that she wanted to slap any person who even talked to northerners, and in turn to Cregan, like that.

Deciding that she had stalled long enough, Margaery got up from her seat and started to make her way to her grandmothers quarters.

As she exited her room Margaery could already see Lannister and Baratheon guards passing by. Although the usual norm was for The Goldcloaks to be watching over the capital they were all currently busy taking care of the aftermath of the tourney that was still going on. The guards also weren't much of a suprise due to both Renly being here, something that Margaery assumes Loras is overjoyed about, and The Queen herself being a Lannister in her own roots.

After a few more minutes of walking throughout The Red Keep, something that was proving to be quite tiresome due to the sheer damn size of this stupis palace, Margaery finally made it to her grandmothers quarters. There weren't any guards at the door, which usually meant that her grandmother wasn't even there.

When Margaery opened the door to her grandmothers room she expected to see a completely empty room with no one inside. Instead she saw Cregan sitting on one of two chairs in the middle of the room and facing away from the door. The moment Cregan heard the door opening he turned around, and when Margaery saw Cregan alone in a room she immediately got suspicious and closed the door behind her as she entered. 'What is he trying this time?' Margaery thought to herself in annoyance. Even though she loved the man, Margaery couldn't help but be annoyed at just how persistent he would be on trying to get both of them to be alone. The saddest thing was that it would usually work and it would also result in them waking up in a different bed from their own in each others arms.

"Cregan what are you doing here?" Margaery asked in a whisper trying to not have anyone hear her.  
"I could ask you the same question." Cregan replied bluntly, probably feigning ignorance.  
"Please don't tell me this is another one of your little schemes?" Margaery said while sitting beside Cregan with the chair next to him.  
"Do you honestly think so little of me?" Cregan asked, his tone and expressiong still keeping neutral.  
"Only when we're left alone, that's when I trust you the least." Margeary replied, crossing her arms and staring at Cregan.

The next few moments continued in silence as the two sat together in an empty room. The whole time Margaery was side-eyeing Cregan expecting him to try and do something but much to her suprise he was as docile as she was. It wasn't the fact that she didn't want to participate in Cregan's little moves but it was as simple as it could be. Margaery didn't want anyone to actually discover their little relationship. Of course almost everyone knew of how Cregan and Margaery felt about each other but the last thing she wanted to do was shame her family name by letting people know about their secret relationship.

"Let me guess, you were sent here by your grandmother." Cregan snapped Margaery out of her thoughts.  
"Yes, and I suspect you were sent here by your father." Margaery replied to him.  
"Aye..." Cregan nodded, closing his eyes for a second before opening them once more.  
"Do you think they found us out?" Margaery asked, the worry in her tone being too obvious.

"I wouldn't be suprised, seeing as how loud you tend to be." Cregan joked while also crossing his arms and legs. With his little joke Margaery turned to Cregan, her expression of worry turning to annoyance as she narrowed her eyes towards him. In truth it was a rarity but Margaery couldn't help but notice how often Cregan would tease her about whenever they had sex. However, instead of being annoyed by his comment, Margaery only gave him a suggestive smile.

"Oh please, you love that about me..." Margaery teased and with Cregan's silence she seemed to be right. And with that the air of awkwardness had dissapeared between the two and they were finally comfortable again. But now that silence had once again taken over the room, Margaery started to think again, but this time not about getting discovered, but about something else. "Cregan..." she got his attention, "... if my grandmother sent me here, and your father sent you here... do you think-" before she could finish her thought, Margaery was interrupted by Cregan.

"We can't keep our hopes up Margaery, even if the circumstances are suggesting otherwise." Cregan immeadiately crushed any hope in Margaery's eyes, something he was obviously upset about but in the end, Cregan's wasn't one for sugar-coating anything.

When he said that, Margaery immeadiately shut up, not wanting to say another word as what little hope she had was crushed. Once again, Margaery loved Cregan, but even she hated who down-to-earth and cold he could be. Despite him usually being more warm and accepting of talking with her, Cregan still didn't coddle her like a child. She was both infuriated and thankful for Cregan treating her like this. On one hand this meant Cregan respected her enough to not consider her 'too fragile' to accept reality most of the time, but in the end, everyone could use at least a little encouragment and positive attitude in their life.

'He's right, it was stupid for me to even think about a possible marriage agreement...' Margaery thought to herself, as much as she hated to have thoughts like that. In usual customs, noble houses would just marry into other houses in their own realms. While marrying houses between other realms wasn't unheard of, it did usually just resort to the smaller houses. That was why thinking of a marriage between Margaery and Cregan was highly unlikely as both of their houses were known for mainly marrying into the houses in their own respective realms.

Just as Margaery's thoughts passed she heard the sound of a door opening causing both her and Cregan to turn around towards the sound. As both suspected it was Lord Eddard and Margaery's grandmother. Lord Eddard was in a traditional northern nobleman outfit, the only thing setting it appart was The Hand of The King badge attached to the outfit. While Lord Eddard wore that Margaery's grandmother Ollena wore a shining light blue dress, the top half being covered by a leather tunic that was covered with decorations of golden roses.

"Ah good, both of you are already here." Margaery's grandmother said as she and Lord Eddard walked in front of both her and Cregan.

"Father, Lady Ollena..." Cregan greeted.  
"Grandmother, Lord Eddard..." Margaery greeted.

"I'll be straight with the both of you, we all aren't here by coincedence." Lord Eddard got right to business.  
"Exactly, we brought you two here for a single reason." Ollena added to Lord Eddard's words.

When her grandmother said that every possible situation ran through Margaery's head, and not many of them were good. Margaery had always wondered if her grandmother knew how far she and Cregan had taken their relationship. It was possible, incredibly so, there wasn't much that could escape The Queen of Thorns' ears but the two of them were usually extra special whenever they wouldn't be together in the middle of the night or all alone in a secluded room or general area. Of course it could have been Margaery's handmaiden, Myra. She wasn't to shy on expressing her feeling for Cregan in front of Myra, but that was mainly because she trusted her and the things Margaery told her weren't even that obvious to let her reach a conclusion that they were already together.

'No, Myra wouldn't betray me like that.' Margaery quickly wiped away any thought of betrayal from her mind.

"Father, if I can be so bold, why did you bring us here?" Cregan ended the silence between the four in the room.  
"That's what we were about to tell you." Eddard answered, turning his head to Ollena to continue.

"Well you see Cregan, after a brief chat between your father and me we have made a decision..." by now Margaery was sure her grandmother was stalling for dramatic suspense, it continued to a point where she couldn't even take it anymore and just wanted her to spit it out.

"Margaery, Cregan, we want you two to marry."

With those words, every single thought in Margaery's head stopped. It seemed as if every bone in her body had stopped as well. 'Marry' that was the word Margaery had dreamed would be between her and Cregan, and she thought it would always be just that, a dream. And yet here she was, sitting in front of her grandmother and the father of the man she loves, telling them that they are going to be married. Nothing about her started to feel normal, she couldn't move, speak, think, blink, breath, absolutely nothing in her body was working.

Everything went silent for a fourth time. The silence only continued as Margaery stared at her grandmother dumbfoundedly before turning her head to Cregan to see his reaction. It may have been her own imagination but Margaery expected him to have the same disinterested expression he always does, almost nothing would get through Cregan's mental defenses. But to her suprise, Margaery saw Cregan, eyes wide and head down low looking at the ground. He looked to have the same suprised reaction she had but probably was handling it much better in his own head. In a split second however, Cregan sighed and looked back up at his father Margaery's grandmother.

"Can we have a moment alone?" Cregan asked, although from his tone it sounded much more like a demand rather than a question. Both Ollena and Lord Eddard merely smiled and nodded before leaving the room. Now only Cregan and Margaery were in the room again, completely alone and left to dabble in their thoughts. Margaery still couldn't believe what was happening, so much so that she, even when Ollena and Lord Eddard had left the room, all she could do was just sit there and stare blankly at the ground.

However, unlike her Cregan got up from the chair and knelt down on one knee in front of Margaery. "Margaery... look at me" Cregan's words immeadiately snapped Margaery from her little state of shock as she looked up into Cregan's eyes. Once again, instead of the cold and expressionless face she was meet with a warm smile and completely calm expression. Granted Cregan's smile was barely visible but it was a smile nontheless. As the two continued to stare into each others eyes Cregan took one of Margaery's hands and wrapped his own around it.

"You of all people know that I'm not one to openly show how I feel..." Cregan stated calmly, his smile slowly starting to dissapear, "... when I ask you this, I want you to answer completely honestly, alright?" he continued to speak in a calm manner, seemingly not even shocked at what had just happened. Despite her being confused, Margaery agreed and instead of answering with words she simply nodded in response. "Tell me, do you really want to marry me? I don't care about what my house and family say, I don't care what your house and your family say, I want to know what you and you alone think. What you really feel..."

When he said that, Margaery felt her heart skip a beat. Not out of excitement or suprise, but from grief. "H-how can you even ask me something like that... _you damn idiot_..." Margaery said, the last part of her sentence being nothing but a faint whisper in her words. Cregan's eyes noticebaly widened at that point, as if he wasn't expecting that response. But despite that, Margaery continued, "... of course I want to marry you." once she said that, Margaery couldn't help but jump out of her chair and onto Cregan, making him almost jump out in suprise.

Tears slowly started to run down her face as Margaery wrapped her arms around Cregan's neck and pushed him closer. The two's lips finally connected as she kissed Cregan with all the passion she could muster at the time. All the while Cregan was visibly shocked at what is happening but after only a second he merely closed his eyes and wrapped his own hands around Margaery's hips to pull her in even closer. The two continued to kiss for several moments, neither seemingly noticing how they were both currently on the cold hard ground.

 _'I don't care who will see us now, I don't care what they will think of me or what they think of you, I don't care about anyone else in this world, right now, you are all I care about Cregan'_

For those few warm moments, Margaery couldn't let herself be separated from him, she thought to herself that if Cregan were to ever leave her sight now, she would never see him again. In the end, Margaery moved her head away a few inches as their lips parted. Only now did she notice that both of them were laying on the ground with the only thing separating herself from the ground itself being Cregan, who Margaery was currently on top of. Cregan was staring at Margaery with a look he had given her only once, the same look he had given her six years ago.

"I love you... I love you Cregan, more than anything in this world, and I will keep loving you till the end of my days, you hear me?!" as she continued to speak Margaery couldn't stop the tears slowly starting to stream down her cheeks. Those tears would eventually go to her chin and down onto Cregan's face. Despite everything she said, despite everything she has done, Cregan still didn't say a word, he only continued to stare as he cupped Margaery's cheek in one of his hands, gently wiping away the tears.

While her vision may have been blurry from the tears, Margaery swore she could see Cregan also on the verge of tears, the only thing she hoped for were that those were tears of joy, not tears of pain or sadness. Just when it seemed that Cregan would also burst into tears he pulled Margaery close and once again wrapped his arms around her. With that Cregan whispered something in her ear, they were the words she wanted to hear for years...

"I-... I love you too, Margaery."

 **Note:**

 **Phew... I'm back bitches! (For like the 20th time I know)**

 **Right so I took a little break from writing these chapter to just take a bit of a breather on things and let the writers block clear from my mind. And know I bring you a new chapter which is extremely focused on this stories "side characters". While most people who don't read Demon of The North won't know why Margaery has the feelings that she does for Cregan people who did read the story are going to know because I'm too lazy to explain it to you. Of course I'm going to say that same thing I always do "sorry if this is extremely cringy, I'm terrible at any sort of romance, I suck at romantic dialogue etc." but in the end I'm kind of proud I was able to get through this and I am also proud of how this worked out in the end.**

 **I was kind of worried about how I should write Margaery and Cregan's reaction to them getting bethrothed and how I should write Margaery's reaction to Cregan's question but once again I believe I did it well enough. If you guys have any suggestion on how I should have approached those two scenes then please leave your ideas and I might consider them.**

 **But now, I have a special request for all of you:**

 **Since I have been PM'ing with akoslows with Kennat and talking about all kinds of things I've been thinking about something. I want you guys to leave your own suggestions for OC's and if I can find a way to incorporate them into the story then I will. All kinds of characters like new Kingsguards, Lannister or Baratheon guards, Goldcloaks, Merchants, Squire's, Knight's, Smiths, Noble's from other houses or hell even your own original house go crazy and I might consider putting them in the story. This will also be implemented in TDoTN (The Demon of The North) when I updated the story with a new chapter I will also inform all the guys reading that story so yeah. Just try to not make them TOO important because many of these OC's will probably be side characters with regular appearance.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	12. Chapter 11: The Diamond District

**Chapter 11: The Diamond District**

It had been three days since Tyrion and his two companions were captured. After those three grueling days they finally managed to escape and were currently galloping as fast as they can throught The Wolfswoods. However, as unlucky as Tyrion knew he was, their captors had already stashed away his special saddle so Tyrion had to ride with Yoren for now while their other friend, who both had found out was named Bronn, rode his own horse. While it took a massive amount of effort, all three of them were able to successfully escape and avoid their current pursuers.

"Yoren, how much farther till we arrive to Winterfell?" Tyrion asked the man he was riding with.  
"We're close now, I remember this road from my last trip South." Yoren responded, still focusing on riding.  
"You sure The Starks are gonna be that acceptive of you Tyrion?" Bronn asked as he rode up to the two.

While he was concious of the last interaction between Stark and Lannister and the bad blood it had caused between the families, Tyrion doupted the honorbound family from The North would reject to take someone in after they were captured by wildlings. Although there is also another card Tyrion could use. The fact that Lord Eddard's eldest daughter was marrying the crown prince who just so happened to be Tyrion's nephew might help him get a roof over his head as well as a place for Yoren and Bronn.

"Well, if they don't think that highly of me then surely they couldn't reject a man of The Night's Watch." Tyrion said as he gestured to Yoren who was struggling to hide his grin at the comment. He could have been truthfull with Bronn, but something told him that Tyrion would have to wait until he could fully trust the mercenary.

"Let's hope your right on that." Bronn wasn't all to reluctant to show off his disbelief at Tyrion's comment but right now, they didn't have the luxury of thinking things through.

 **Rodrick's POV**

Ever since they had gotten back to the capital Rodrick never got a chance to be anywhere else but The Red Keep and the occasion with The Sept of Baelor. Of course, after that incident on The Kingsroad every single servant in The Red Keep kept a close eye on Rodrick due to the wounds he had suffered on the slight chance that they would actually reopen again. Even though the chances of that happening were basically as inpracticle as it could be, Rodrick's mother still had all her servants, handmaidens, soldiers and even spies watching Rodrick. In the end, this whole incident in The Ruby Ford had proved to be nothing short of a nuiscance now that everything was done with.

However, after some convincing Rodrick was finally able to get out from The Red Keep and go to The Diamond District. While it was an oppurtunity to get some fresh air Rodrick also used this chance for him and Sansa to take a walk around The Diamond District. Granted Ser Barristan and Ser Jory were also accompanying the two but they had the right sense to keep at least some distance to give Rodrick and Sansa what little privacy they could get.

As he expected, The Diamond District hadn't changed a bit from the last time Rodrick was here. While a few months ago this district wasn't as crowded as it is now, the effects from the tournament could still be seen as now the entire Diamond District was sprawling with foreigners from The Free Cities. Merchants from Lys, Pentos, Braavos and many more. An unexpected visitor was a weapon smith from Yi Ti, carrying with him an assortment of swords, spears, maces, bows, axes and many other strangely shaped weaponry.

While weapons were never really a point of interest for Rodrick he was fascinated by the weapons from Essos. Of course that fascination was more for research purposes and a want to know how effective those weapons really were in combat. There was nothing Rodrick loved more than knowledge, be that the knowing the art of war, the art of music, the art of farming, there were many things Rodrick had yet to discover. One of Rodrick's favorite topics was history however. He could recite the entire history of Westeros from all the way back to Aegon's Conquest, stating every small detail like the back of his mind. Of course a good book still couldn't give the same amount of knowledge as personal experience. But if that was the case then Rodrick doupted he could have much personal experience in combat or farming as Rodrick's mother and father wouldn't be caught dead letting Rodrick do anything not beffiting a prince.

But right now Rodrick didn't need to worry about those kinds of things.

 **King's Landing, The Diamond District, Noon...**

"The market seems to be much more lively than usual." Rodrick commented as he, Sansa, Barristan and Jory walked throughout the district. While in other parts of the city it would have been reccomended that Rodrick and Sansa have their own small escort of Goldcloaks or maybe the Kingsguard but in The Diamond District that wouldn't be needed. It seemed that this district was more accustomed to nobles and merchant lords so Rodrick and Sansa didn't really stick out that much as their clothing and appearance was nothing more than the simple nobleman and noblewoman.

"Everything seems so bright and colourful." Sansa said, admiring the many rainbow-like sheets and cloths from a distance.  
"If you think that this season's colours are impressive you should have been here in the spring." Rodrick commented.  
"Why?" Sansa asked as she turned to Rodrick, "Do the merchants have different clothes for every season?".  
"Of course. Why do you ask, don't people in The North do the same?" Rodrick asked in legitimate suprise.  
"Well... not quite." Sansa said quite hesitantely, her tone giving it away as quickly as she said it.  
"What do you mean?" Rodrick's couldn't help but quench his newly found curiousness.

"In The North there isn't much variety in clothing, not in the traditional sense anyway. Like the weather in our parts there is never really a true summer up North therefore it's more traditional for us to wear heavier clothes made from wool and furs rather than silk like the dresses up South. If you were to break it down to seasons then we ultimately have clothes for just Fall and Winter." as Sansa explained all that Rodrick couldn't help but be impressed at how articulate Sansa was in this sort of thing. Rodrick was never interested in clothing so hearing all of this was like hearing a foreign language for the first time, granted it was a foreign language he could understand but still, the metaphor needed to hold up here.

"Right, but what about the dresses you wear now? You didn't have all of them sown just for the journey south did you?" Rodrick asked.

"Don't be ridiculous." Sansa said immediately while giggling a bit. "This dress was the one I used to wear for feasts and other festivities whenever they happened in Winterfell. The rest are just spares I occasionally use when this one gets dirty or torn up." Sansa showed off her dress a little as she did a little twirl with the same light-blue dress she would always wear. Frankly the sight of Sansa like this was adorable to Rodrick, it was the little things that made Rodrick the most happy however. The way she smiled, the way she sometimes would skip around and do small little dances whenever they would go for a walk, the way she would constantly hum a little song when things would go silent between the two.

"By the way, I wanted to ask. Has something happened?" Rodrick asked her, causing Sansa to widen her eyes in suprise.  
"What-... what do you mean Rodrick?" Sansa said in a slightly worried tone, intentionally avoiding Rodrick's eyes.  
"It's just that you've been slightly... jumpy, these past few days." he explained, being much more open than Sansa was now.  
"Oh... it-, it's nothing Rodrick, really." Sansa stuttered a bit through her words but still managed to finish her sentence.  
"Are you sure? Sansa you know that you can trust me." Rodrick continued to try and reason with her.

Right now Sansa had been visibly nervous, although she was doing her best to hide it. Rodrick knew that something was obviously bothering her but the real question was what. Rodrick also could somewhat relate to Sansa, she didn't live her life here and therefore she didn't know the true dangers of a city like this. A place where, at any time and at any place, you could be stabbed in the back by a knife in the dark. The Crown still had many enemies, some still living in Westeros, but instead of targeting the current King and Queen it made much more sense to kill off the future heir to the throne. Perhaps that was what Sansa had learned about and just now was she realising how many dangers there are in the capital. Rodrick wouldn't be suprised if she was told this by her brother Cregan, the man was known for his pure cynicism and brutal honesty.

However, before Rodrick could get a clear answer he could start to feel something nudging on his leg. Looking down Rodrick saw a big ball of light-grey fur slightly biting his leg, of course this wasn't even close to hurting him but he could still feel it. "Lady! Stop that!" Sansa commanded her direwolf to get off of Rodrick. They had been walking this whole time and Rodrick forgot that Sansa's direwolf Lady was following them. There were many times when Rodrick didn't even know Lady was following the two of them and this only added to that count.

"It looks like I have a habit of being a chew toy for animals." Rodrick joked, even if it was in bad taste.  
"Don't say that..." Sansa murmured in a slightly sad tone, seemingly whispering to herself.

Now that the original tension had seemingly eased down Rodrick decided he shouldn't try to pry anymore that he already has. While he was genuinely worried for what made Sansa so nervous, Rodrick knew better than to continue to with his little interogation, at least not in a public area like this. While Sansa pretended to scold her direwolf both Rodrick and Ser Barristan could notice her ebing slightly thankful that the topic at hand was dropped. All the while Ser Jory was staying ever vigilant, sharing in Sansa's apparent nervousness.

"Listen, how about you look around the stands and see if you find anything you like." Rodrick suggested to end the silence between the two.  
"No, you don't have to buy me anything." Sansa said, trying to feign humbleness but she still couldn't help hide her excitement at Rodrick's words.  
"It's alright, at least I can use my standing for something that would make me happy for once." Rodrick said, the last part being much quieter.  
"Oh..." Sansa's cheeks quickly flushed a rozy red before she concealed it by looking down, "... alright then, I'll be over there.".

With that Sansa started to skip towards the merchant stand that was selling Pentos silk dresses. With her Lady followed suit along with Ser Jory who kept close to Sansa now that she and the prince weren't together and didn't need the 'privacy'. As Ser Jory did so, as did Ser Barristan, who walked up to Rodrick and was now standing beside him. While Rodrick looked on at Sansa looking around the stands, gawking at the dozens of beautiful dresses like a small child. However, as he continued to look at Sansa Rodrick couldn't help but feel a bit light in the head, knees, stomach, arms, in fact almost everything was slightly going numb. Of course it was nothing too strongly numbing but it was strange. Ever since the day Rodrick gave her the necklace she still wears today and is currently wearing Rodrick couldn't help but feel an urge to just be close to her.

He didn't need to hold her, embrace her, kiss her, Rodrick only needed to be close to her to just take away that feeling of coldness. Whenever he would just be near Sansa or just for him to be able to see her from a distance Rodrick found himself having a certain sense of warmth.

"You two have grown quite close haven't you?" Ser Barristan ended the silence between the two.  
"Yes... yes we have." Rodrick said in completely disinterested tone.

"And you are..."  
"Happy, I'm happy about this."  
"Good, that's... good..."

After they were done with that awkward conversation it was followed up by an even more awkward silence. It wasn't that Ser Barristan didn't know how to talk with Rodrick at times but it was just the point of topic that the old knight had trouble talking with. Love was something any Kingsguard wasn't to keen on talking about, even the one's who have experienced that feeling didn't want talk about it as it would technically 'break' one of their vows. However, Rodrick was one of the few people that Ser Barristan trusted with the knowledge of the one woman he truly ever loved in his life, Ashara Dayne.

It was for that exact reason why Rodrick found himself being torn on whether or not he should talk about this with Barristan. On one hand, the old knight trusted Rodrick so much that he was willing to tell him the one secret that would shame his honor. On the other hand however, Rodrick still didn't want to talk about it for no other reason than he was embarrassed to talk about it.

However, before he could actually start talking with Ser Barristan there was another voice interrupting him and making both men turn to the origins of the sound. "Prince Rodrick Baratheon!" ironically, it was The Prince of Dorne, Oberyn Martell, who so dramatically called for Rodrick. Following him was another suprise though. With Prince Oberyn was Willas Tyrell who was somewhat struggling to keep up with The Dornish Prince's stride but nonetheless he was still able to pace up to Rodrick along with Oberyn.

"Prince Oberyn, Lord Willas, what brings you two here?" Rodrick immediately straightened his posture as he saw the two lords approaching him.  
"We were simply passing by, what about you your grace?" Willas answered before Oberyn could give his own answer.  
"My betrothed and I had ventured out of The Red Keep for some fresh air." Rodrick said, gesturing towards the still occupied Sansa.  
"Ah, I see..." Prince Oberyn said, looking over to Sansa with a fresh look of pure lust, something Rodrick didn't like one bit.

"You are a very lucky man Prince Rodrick. To have a fiery beauty like that by your side..." Oberyn continued to speak, his own voice now also filled with lust. Rodrick had to admit that his own emotions were mixing right now, Oberyn's comment on Sansa's beauty made Rodrick realise again how beautiful she really was, but then again Rodrick couldn't help but feel his inner jealousy come out at Oberyn.

"Yes Prince Oberyn, I am a very lucky man to be betrothed to someone like her. How are your daughters if you don't mind me asking? Surely they are still in Dorne and not following his fathers footsteps." Rodrick retorted to Oberyn's somewhat predatory comment. From Rodrick's words Oberyn snickered, clearly not fazed by those words, at least not completely fazed.

As tensions continued to slowly rise between the two Ser Barristan and Willas were smart enough to stand between the two, seemingly having the exact same plan as they both did the same thing. "Oberyn, why don't we continue on to the tavern, I've been waiting to try that new Dornish purple wine you have been boasting about." Willas said as he limped towards Oberyn and took him by the shoulder. All the while Willas was talking Oberyn didn't even break eye contact as he and Rodrick continued to stare each other down with basically the same passive-aggressive expression.

"Come my prince, it seems Lady Sansa is having some trouble looking through the stands. Perhaps we should go and assist her." Ser Barristan suggested as he too took Rodrick by the shoulder, although his tone was much more showing of how he was lying through his teeth. Same with Oberyn, Rodrick didn't even flinch at Ser Barristan's words and only continued to stare at The Prince of Dorne. However, unlike Oberyn Rodrick knew when to stop and followed up with Ser Barristan's lie.

"You're right Ser Barristan. Well, Prince Oberyn, Lord Willas..." Rodrick said farewell to the two lords.  
"Of course your grace, goodbye..." Willas once again interrupted Oberyn before he could say another word.

After that little 'confrontation', if it could even be called that. Both groups of two went their own ways with Rodrick being dragged away by Ser Barristan and Oberyn being dragged away with Willas who, while still limping, was able to succed in pushing The Prince of Dorne back to get some solidarity. On their way back Sansa had finally stopped looking through the stands and saw Rodrick and Ser Barristan backing away from Oberyn and Willas. Seeing this she immediately walked towards the two, her direwolf Lady and Ser Jory following right behind her.

"Rodrick what was that? Why was Prince Oberyn here?" Sansa asked her not being completely worried, but still worried nonetheless.  
"Nothing, it seemed that he was just passing by." Rodrick said, trying to knock it off as nothing special.

"Don't worry about it. Anyways, what about you, did you find anything you like?" Rodrick once again played everything off as nothing as he changed the topic.  
"Oh, no I didn't. Everything seemed to be just a bit too flashy for me." Sansa said, now much more calmer as she clasped her arms together and straightened her posture.

"Then shall we leave? Frankly I'm getting a bit tired of this district." Rodrick said, gesturing back towards The Red Keep as he reached out his other hand towards Sansa. After that little chat with Oberyn Rodrick felt like being chivalrous, be that from lack of self-esteem or it just being a spur of the moment.

As she looked at Rodrick in slight confusion Sansa could only blush slightly at his sudden act of chivalry but she was able to play it off as she courtly took his hand. "Gladly..." Sansa said and with that, all five, including Sansa's direwolf Lady, started to return to The Red Keep.

 **Note:**

 **Right so this is another shorter chapter that was a bit more light-hearted with more bonding between Rodrick and Sansa, an appearance from Oberyn and Willas and Tyrion, Yoren and Bronn succesfully escaping from their captors. First off, yes, the man from a couple chapters ago in the same cell as Tyrion and Yoren was Bronn, not that hard to figure out but hey, what are you gonna do.**

 **First off I want to give a shoutout to** _Ryan.w123_ **who gave his suggestion for an OC. I'll be introducing him in either the next chapter or the one after that, depending on how the situation turns out. Second off, DON'T WORRY I will explain how Tyrion and friends escaped later on in the story so don't be going in the reviews and telling me how I skipped Tyrion's escape scene. The only thing I'm not sure of is if I'll just explain it all or if I'll put it in a flashback or something.**

 **Once again I will repeat this, if you have any suggestions for OC's and you want them to be featured in the story then please either leave it in the reviews or just PM me.** _Akoslows_ **and** _Ryan.w123_ **have already put their suggestions for OC's as well as** _ImperialPrussia_ **who made his own suggestion for a full on original house for Demon of The North. So yeah, feel free to leave your own suggestions because frankly I've been wanting more feedback from people and I think this is a good way to get people involved a bit more in the story.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	13. Chapter 12: New Companions

**Chapter 12: New Companions**

The massive stone walls and gates of Winterfell were something that Tyrion had almost forgotten during his journey to the wall since it was a place he didn't think he would be revisiting, but considering the circumstances this is probably the best place Tyrion could go in The North. Atop the walls the Stark Banner was draped proudly as it flickered through the strong wind. Along the many banners were also the household guard of Winterfell, adorned in their usual Northern guard armor. After a moment one of the northern guard noticed the three men, Yoren, Tyrion and Bronn, standing in front of the gates on their horses.

"What business do you have here?" the guard spoke to them.  
"We wish to speak to your lord good Ser." Tyrion answered, still sitting behind Yoren.

When he said that the guard immediately raised his brow and frankly, Tyrion couldn't blame him. Both Bronn and Tyrion had an extreme amount of filth on them as well as on their clothes. While that did fit Bronn's persona of a common mercenary, Tyrion didn't qutie resemble a noble member of House Lannister, although that probably wouldn't help his case. Yoren was of course also dirty but noticabely less than Tyrion and Bronn. However, just when it seemed like the guard was about to turn the three men down, Ser Rodrick Cassel had noticed who was really in front of the gates.

"Lord Tyrion! What are you doing here?!" Ser Rodrick Cassel asked, his expression completely full of suprise and shock.  
"All will be explained in due time Ser Cassel. For now would you mind opening up the gates?" Tyrion both answered and asked.

"Of course my lord." the old knight answered before turning to his own men, "OPEN THE GATES!" he shouted out and on a whim, the gates of Winterfell started to open and Tyrion, Yoren and Bronn started to ride into the castle. The whole time Yoren and Bronn were silent for no other reason than they knew of how Tyrion would be able to convince them into letting all three of them into Winterfell. Tyrion was grateful for that sort of trust the two had given him but frankly Yoren could have just said he was from The Night's Watch and the northeners would have let him in.

Once the gates had fully opened Yoren and Tyrion rode in first and Bronn followed suit. In the courtyard there were many workers and servants, as well as many household guardsmen, all of them were busy doing whatever they needed to do to keep Winterfell all in check. The site of Winterfell's courtyard is much different to that of The Red Keep's. Unlike King's Landing, all the supposed staff seemed to be simple farmers, bakers and simple people who would mainly just carry things around. The more important roles like the role of a blacksmith and stablemaster were just limited to one person while in the capital there were several blacksmiths and stablemasters, some more skilled, some with better experience than others.

Yoren stopped his horse and got off of it and Bronn did the same. When they did that both looked at Tyrion with small grins starting to form on their heads. Of course those grins dissapeared immediately when Tyrion jumped off the horse with suprising skill, landing on his feet and shaking the impact off like it was nothing. As a small dust started both form and dissipate around Tyrion's feet, adding even more dirt to his own clothes, Yoren and Bronn just stared at Tyrion with expressions of shock and suprise as they didn't expect anything of the sort from the short dwarf man.

Despite how he looked and how short his height was, Tyrion was an extremely acrobatic person. Even though his brother Jaime was the warrior of the family, Tyrion had also trained in both combat and the art of war in terms of leading troops. Due to that training, Tyrion had acquired a massive amount of strength, both upper and lower body, allowing him to perform many acrobatic feats not quite normal in a battlefield. Of course Tyrion was not a master swordsman, in fact he found a battleaxe to be a more favorable weapon to him than a sword, but he did consider himself at least a decent fighter who was able to take down an opponent or two.

After the three had gotten off of their horses they were met by the old knight Ser Rodrick Cassel and two other northern guardsmen. Ser Cassel took a quick glance at the three men, raising his brow slightly at the sight of all three of them in their current state. Tyrion's red coat that usually had a bright Lannister color was muddled by, ironically, mud. Yoren wore pure black chainmail thus most of the rust and dirt didn't show as much as Tyrion's and Bronn's outfits but it was still something. Bronn's outfit was a leather strapped outfit with a breastplate with a high amount of rust attached to the breastplate, that piece of armor was something they took from their captors.

"What happened to you my lord?" Ser Rodrick Cassel asked him.  
"We were captured on the way back to the wall." Tyrion answered.  
"Captured? By whom? Are you hurt?" the knight started to panic.  
"Fear not good Ser, I am not harmed." Tyrion said slightly proudly.

"As for our captors, I am quite not sure. They were not simple bandits, nor were they simple highwaymen. I was at a crossroads as to who we were captured by until our escape. We saw men wearing heavy northern furs adorned with bones and some had bronze and copper. 'There is no doupt they were wildlings' I thought to myself, but then I and my companions initiated our escape plans and when we clashed with our captors they used advanced tactics that both Southern and Northern soldiers would use, some tactics even I hadn't thought or experienced. It is no doupt that those people were wildlings, but the real question was how did they get past The Wall and how did they learn such advanced tactical maneuvers in combat..."

As Tyrion continued to talk he noticed how Ser Rodrick Cassel was slightly dazzed by all the information that he was feeding the old knight but nevertheless he was still taking all of it in. However, when Tyrion stopped his little speech he shifted his eyes to the left a bit towards the stables where the youngest Stark child, Rickon, was hiding behind a corner of the stables with his massive black direwolf by his side. Walking past Rickon was the boys mother Catelyn, who was quickly walking to Tyrion, Yoren and Bronn.

"Lord Tyrion! What happened to you?!" Catelyn said in a startled voice, her tone expressing the worry even more.  
"Fear not my lady, despite my appearance I am quite fine as are my companions." Tyrion said, his voice much calmer than the lady.

When Tyrion said that Lady Catelyn looked away from Tyrion towards his companions. "Yoren, it's has been a while since you've visited Winterfell." Catelyn said as she noticed The Night's Watch recruiter. Frankly, Tyrion was suprised by Lady Starks response to seeing Yoren but when he thought about it The North was really the most friendliest with The Night's Watch.

"It's good to see you my lady." Yoren said, taking a low bow towards Lady Stark.

While both Tyrion and Yoren had introduced themselves to Lady Catelyn, Bronn remained silent and not drawing any attention to himself and just bowed when Lady Stark came close to Tyrion. It wasn't allowed for a simple mercenary to talk directly towards a noble or someone of higher status and, knowing of Bronn's usual way of responding, Tyrion was glad the mercenary knew when to occasionally swallow his pride. Of course this wasn't something unheard of, it wasn't a crime that would bear a punishment like actually striking someone of noble birth but right now all three of them needed to be in Lady Starks good side.

"Lady Stark, if you would mind I would be more than ready to explain everything once my companions and I are given a warm meal and a few cups of wine." Tyrion went straight to the point, preventing any further unnecesary greetings or sentences that may have given Lady Stark the wrong impression.

Lady Catelyn didn't respond in words she only nodded and started to lead Tyrion, Yoren and Bronn to the main hall.

 **Rodrick's POV**

 **King's Landing, The Red Keep's training courtyard, Noon...**

The aftermath of the tournament had finally settled down and now all of the guests were slowly starting to make their way back home, the only exception being The Tyrells for obvious reasons. When Rodrick first heard of the proposal between The Starks and Tyrells his Lannister side kicked in, thinking that this could have been a power move to secure both The Tyrells and The Starks position in The South and North. But the more Rodrick thought about it, the more it seemed less likely. Sansa was already bethrothed to Rodrick, the prince, that was about the largest amount of influence one could get in The South. Next to that Cregan was the second son as well as the equivalent of a landless knight at the moment, however Rodrick knew that would change soon if what he heard from Ser Barristan was true.

"DODGE!" a voice snapped Rodrick from his thoughts as he noticed a blade quickly coming towards him.

Running on his instincts Rodrick quickly stepped away from the blade, strafing to the left and swinging his sword sideways towards his opponent. Rodrick's opponent quickly blocked his swing and retaliated with low strike towards his ankles. To dodge the swing Rodrick jumped in the air to mild success as he dodged his opponents blade. The low strike left Rodrick's opponent slightly dissoriented and gave him a chance to quickly finish the fight.

With his opponents guard left completely open Rodrick took his chance and unleashed a combination of aggresive strikes. First going for the torso Rodrick swung his blade to his opponents side but to no avail, he blocked it, if not a bit sloppily, second Rodrick used both hands to viciously strike at his opponents neck in an attempt to stagger him and while he was still able to block it Rodrick succesfully staggered him back a few steps. After finally having a clear opening Rodrick took his chance and went to finally finish the fight. He raised his sword in the air, making it clear where he was going to strike but just when Rodrick and his opponent were about to clash blades Rodrick shifted the direction of his strike to the side and striked his opponent hard enough to throw him to the ground, effectively making him drop his blade from the sheer speed of his fall.

"Ah, Seven Hells..." Rodrick's opponent grunted in pain as he lied down on the ground.  
"Serves you right for trying to take that cheap shot Harold." Rodrick said as he reached his hand forward to help him up.  
"Well you weren't exactly hiding the fact you were distracted again." Harold said in a pained tone, reaching out for Rodrick's hand to pick him up.  
"Oh was I now? Or was I baiting you into trying to strike me?" Rodrick said, trying to act cocky and play off his little daydream.  
"Yeah right, I've known you for 9 years Rodrick and I know you're not that smart." Harold quipped.

The two shared a quick laugh before going to the sides of the courtyard and putting their traning swords back in their place. When they got off from the courtyard Rodrick once again noticed the pure emptyness of it, something that was becoming quite usual in The Red Keep. While it was nothing serious something about it just bothered Rodrick, having it almost scratching at his brain for how long this had been going on. Before he could think more clearly on the matter however Harold once again snapped him from his thoughts.

"So what's been going on with you and your future wife?" Harold asked.  
"What do you mean?" Rodrick said in a confused tone.  
"Well I noticed you two haven't been talking to each other as much recently." Harold said, a small smirk starting to form on his face.  
"You managed to notice that but still don't know how to tie down a horse to it's post..." Rodrick mumbled in an annoyed tone.

"That was one time Rodrick, one time..."

Harold Lynn, one of Rodrick's closer friends and at times a complete pain in the ass. 9 years ago Harold came from a small Westerland house to squire for Rodrick's uncle Jaime in King's Landing, something that proved rather strange seeing as he wasn't a usual knight but a Knight of The KingsGuard. While Rodrick did consider himself Ser Barristan's squire, all be it a squire who is followed around by his knight, having a KingsGuard member have a squire was an extremely rare thing, but in the end Tywin insisted on Jaime having a squire. The duty of a squire is to aid his lord or his knight but for Harold it was different. Jaime usually did things by himself, letting Harold run amock doing whatever he wished.

At most times Harold acted cocky and acted like he didn't care about what others thought of him but through the years of Rodrick knowing him there were many times he saw the softer side of Harold, the side of him that loved to help people, that loved the feeling of aiding someone in need, the side of him Rodrick considered to be one of a true knight.

Perhaps that was why the two got along so well...

 **Sansa's POV**

 **In another courtyard of The Red Keep...**

"Cregan are you sure you're okay?" Sansa asked her twin.  
"I told you already I'm fine..." Cregan responded, as monotone as ever.

While Sansa didn't know if her brothers words were true she did know that Cregan has been looking worse and worse as the days go by. His skin had gotten paler ever since they left The North while the rest of their families sking had only gotten more tanned than anything else due to the longer days and hotter weather. Because of that Sansa couldn't stop worrying over Cregan for these reasons. Even though most of the conversations between the two were talking about the mistery behind Jon Arryn's death, all of their conversations ended the same way, Sansa asking Cregan if he was alright and Cregan brushing it off as nothing.

"If you say so..." Sansa mumbled to herself, clasping her hands together and looking down on the ground.

Cregan stared at her sister doing her best into trying to guilt trip him into saying something but Sansa soon realised he was all too used to her doing this. "Sansa for the last time, there is nothing wrong with me, I'm just tired." Cregan said before Sansa had a chance to even say anything to try and convince him to talk to her.

As the two stood to the sides of the courtyard Sansa looked around to spot Rodrick from far away in another training courtyard, however he wasn't alone. Next to him was a boy who looked around 16 like Rodrick, her and Cregan. The boy had short brown hair with emerald green eyes and a hard-noticing scar on his left cheek. Rodrick and the boy seemed almost identical just with different colored features, with Rodrick's short black hair and eyes as blue as the sea itself. The scars were also a visible feature due to the boys scar on his left cheek and Rodrick's still visible scar on his neck from that day on The Ruby Ford.

While the sight seemed normal enough Sansa then noticed the four other figures near Rodrick and his friend, at least that's what Sansa thought he could be. From a quick glance Sansa couldn't quite make out who the first three figures are, two of them wore black chainmail while the third one wore a black tunic. The fourth figure was much smaller than the other five and stood out due to his blue tunic, from a closer inspection Sansa noticed that it was Triston, Cregan's squire. Out of all the six of them one figure stuck out, the massive man in the black tunic. However, even from the distance where Sansa was standing she could see that a conflict was at the point of almost erupting.

"Cregan, isn't that your squire Triston?" Sansa asked, looking towards the small boy with the blue tunic.

To her words Cregan looked over to where Sansa was looking and seemed to agree with her. "What is Clegane trying to do to my squire?" Cregan said, his tone forboding as he got up from the chair he was sitting on this whole time. When Cregan got up his direwolf Sif stood up with him, staring menacingly towards Clegane along with his owner. It was at times like these that Sansa could bring Lady with her like Cregan could with Sif but if it was one thing she knew it was that Sansa didn't have that air of menace that Cregan seemed like he could turn on whenever he wanted to, like he was doing right now.

Sansa only followed her brother as he started to walk towards the place where Rodrick, Triston, Clegane and the three others were. Finally Sansa figured out that the Clegane Cregan was talking about was no other than The Mountain himself, although from his sheer height it would be obvious, Sansa knew of both Greatjon and Smalljon Umber who were as strong if not stronger than the supposed Mountain That Rides so seeing someone who was around seven feet tall wasn't all that rare for her.

"Who do you think you are you little brat to get in my way?" The Mountain spat out menacingly to the terrified Triston who was trying to hide his fear.  
"That's enough Clegane, the boy did nothing to you!" Rodrick stepped between the two, making himself seem as intimidating as he could be.

The whole time Sansa and Cregan quickly rushed to the scene she couldn't help but hate Rodrick for his stupid amount of bravery he would perform just to keep up his even stupider act of 'The Crown Prince'. The Mountain and Rodrick stared each other down as Cregan and Sansa picked up their pace along with Sif. 'Damn you Rodrick... you're an idiot but at least you're a brave idiot' Sansa thought to herself, basically running now to keep up with Cregan's pace.

"What's going on here Gregor, why are you harrasing my squire?" Cregan asked, somehow managing to keep his tone calm and collected amongst the chaos.

"Sansa? What are you doing here?" Rodrick was the first one to react, his intimidating expression now replaced with a softer one of confusion.  
"It's a long story Rodrick, I'll explain later..." Sansa said, not wanting to tell Rodrick the real reason her and Cregan met up.

"So you're this little fucks master are you?!" The Mountain practically spat as he spoke his words to Cregan.  
"Aye, I am. And who do you think you are to be threatening him like that." Cregan responded with an emotionless expression.  
"Didn't your whore of a mother ever teach you to respect your elders boy." The Mountain once again spat at Cregan's face, like a mad dog.  
"Men like you don't deserve anyone's respect, much less my own." Cregan once again responded, still keeping a cool head.

Now it was Cregan and The Mountain who were staring each other down. Cregan and Sansa were both around 6 feet tall but The Mountain still towered over Cregan and if it were her on that spot, Sansa would be terrified. But then again, nothing seemed to even faze Cregan and Sansa doupted that this time would be any different. However, a conflict was undouptebly going to happen now that Cregan and The Mountain were eyeing each other down now so Sansa decided to have as little casualties as there could be here. She walked around Cregan and The Mountain to Rodrick and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Rodrick, come on, we should all leave." Sansa whispered, trying not to gain the attention of The Mountains other two men.  
"What?! No, we should-" Rodrick tried to object but Sansa took his hand and made him look at her.  
"Please..." Sansa said, although her words were more a whimper than anything else, making the situation a bit worse.

Rodrick looked at her confused, probably not knowing even knowing what Cregan is planning to do. Very few people in King's Landing knew of what Cregan was really capable of and often underestimated him which would lead to a bloody conflict that always ended with him walking away having won the battle. As Sansa started to get more desperate she wrapped her arms around one of Rodrick's and started to lightly tug him away from the scene.

"Sansa we can't just leave your brother here with this monster." Rodrick whispered to her, continuing to struggle against Sansa.  
"Trust me Rodrick... please..." Sansa once again tried to argue Rodrick and the others into leaving but it seemed no one was intending to leave.

While Sansa and Rodrick were arguing however it seemed that a much more heated conflict was going on between The Mountain and Cregan as before anyone knew it Clegane threw a punch towards Cregan, causing everyone to go into a straight panic for a few moments. Before Clegane could hit Cregan however he simply moved his head a bit from the punch and countered The Mountains strike with an even stronger punch, swinging directly to The Mountain's face, and from the sound it seemed Cregan might have even broken The Mountain's nose.

"ARWGH, MY NOSE... YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" The Mountain once again spat out as he clenched his right hand on his broken nose to stop the bleeding and in an act of retaliation Clegane once again threw another punch towards Cregan with his left hand. Like last time, Cregan easily dodged the punch but instead of countering the blow by punching The Mountain, Cregan grabbed Clegane's arm by his wrist with one of his own hands and with the other one Cregan grabbed Clegane by the throat.

His movements were so sudden that Sansa didn't even see what had happened all the way up until the end when the act had subsided. Now, The Mountain was on his knees with Cregan slowly crushing both his neck and the wrist Cregan was holding with his other hand. With the pressure Cregan was applying to Clegane's neck it Sansa knew her brother could very much break The Mountain's neck here and now.

 _ **"From what I had heard from others Clegane, you have broken many people's bones daily, some were women who had refused to be raped by you, some were men trying to defend their families from you, many were simple people trying to live their lives but you sought them out for your own personal enjoyment."**_ as Cregan continued to talk Sansa could see him pulling Clegane's arm away from his shoulder more and more. _**"You seem to enjoy breaking bones. But tell me, do you know how many bones the human body has?"**_ Cregan asked, putting even more pressure on The Mountain's neck.

While this was going on Sansa, Rodrick, Triston, Rodrick's friend and the two of Clegane's men were all standing to the sides, too afraid of what was going to happen to them if they intervened.

 _ **"I'm not quite the expert of human organs nor the other insides of the human body but I do know one thing."**_ Cregan's voice had turned completely menacing, a large opposite to his calm and cool demenour just a few moments ago. _ **"However, the maester who taught me told me that the human body has a total of 206 bones, our arms have around 30 bones by themselves, not including the numerous parts those bones have by themselves. That's the part many people forget about when they talk about breaking or dislocating bones, they often forget about how many options they really have..."**_

 _ **"So tell me Clegane, how many of your bones do you want me to break?"**_

 **Note:**

 **Alright Chapter 12 in which I introduce Ryan.w123's suggested OC, Harold Lynn.**

 **Harold will somewhat occasionally be appearing in the story but often to just drive the plot forward as he is ultimately a side character. Once again I want to notify that anyone can give their suggestions for their own personal characters to appear in the story and that they can really choose whatever they want the character to be, even make your own noble house if you want, I'll probably include them in the following chapters of your suggestion. Suggestions are always open.**

 **Next chapter, we get the conclusion to the conflict between The Mountain and Cregan as well as an insightful lesson of human bone anatomy from everyone's favorite teacher Cregan.**

 **As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.**


	14. Chapter 13: Broken Bones

**Chapter 13: Broken Bones**

The Mountain let out another cry as Cregan continued to pull his arm further from his shoulder, with each pull Rodrick, Sansa, Harold and Triston could hear yet another crack in his bones. It was a strange sight to behold, in all his years Rodrick always saw the Mountain as nothing now but a monster under his grandfathers chain but now he couldn't help but slightly sympathize for him. While Sansa, Harold and Triston looked on in shock Rodrick stood still, his logical side made him calmer that usual and that same side lead his eyes towards the Mountains two lackeys.

The two drew their swords and went to defend their lord but before they could reach said lord Rodrick grabbed his training sword and charged towards the two. In the span of two seconds Rodrick ran up to one of the henchmen and, with all of his force, he struck the man in the head. He was wearing a helmet so Rodrick could feel a lot of knockback from his strike but due to the sheer force of the strike insted of being blown back the blow sent the henchman falling to the ground while at the same time the blade itself broke with tons of small wooden splinters flying in the air flying from the impact.

The other henchman jumped back a bit from the sudden attack by Rodrick, however, before he could attack Rodrick Harold was quicker to the draw as he did the same as Rodrick, he grabbed his own training sword and charged towards him, instead of a full on frontal attack however Harold attacked from behind, using the butt of his hilt to knock down his opponent. When the henchman fell down he was still concious, Harold didn't hit the man hard enough so to make up for it he jumped on his opponent to knock him down, pinning his legs and arm in place with his own to restrain the henchman from moving.

Rodrick and Harold looked at each other as Rodrick nodded as a sign of thanks before turning towards the Mountain and Cregan who had not moved from their position during the whole debacle.

"How many bones do you think we are at now, I believe we've reached 24." Cregan said as he let go of the Mountains arm.  
"Aaaaaaaaagh... my arm... you damn bastard... I'll gut you like a rat..." Clegane said through his heavy breathing as he gripped him broken arm.  
"Cregan, stop this, he's had enough already." Rodrick said, trying to calm down the tension, as impossible as it seemed at this point.  
"My lord, the prince is right, you don't need to do this." Triston supported Rodrick's words, to the suprise of both Rodrick and Cregan by the looks of it.  
"Is that so?" Cregan asked as he raised his brow towards Triston, "Tell me Triston, this man threatened you for basically nothing. Do you really have no malice towards him?"  
"No... of course I would hate someone like him. But I would never wish something like this upon anyone." Triston said, staring right at Cregan while doing so.  
"Hmm... well, that's quite the interesting thing to say." Cregan said in a... weird tone... as he placed his fingers on his chin and rested his elbow on the other hand.  
"Oh, are we going to stop fighting now? Because that would be greaaaaat..." Harold said, already tired from trying to keep the henchman down.

Everything seemed to calmed down, the noise had died down and everyone seemed to have started thinking straight again. All expect the Mountain and the henchman who was still concious, Rodrick could still hear him grumbling towards Harold about how he was going to snap his neck. Rodrick turned his head towards Triston and Sansa who were standing beside each other, slightly far away from both Cregan and Clegane, with both of their expressions seeming much calmer. Time seemed to slow down for a moment however as Sansa's expression changed drastically and it seemed Rodrick was the only one to notice while Sansa herself seemed to see something no one else saw.

"CREGAN WATCH OUT!" she yelled out to warn her brother.

"Wha-" that was all Cregan could let out as he opened his eyes to look at his sister again before being hit full force by the Mountain in the gut. Cregan's arms blocked the punch slightly however in the moment all of those things happened the hit itself looked to be extremely painful. After the hit Cregan was almost sent flying by it, the block however made him just step back about two feet. Despite the fact he blocked though Cregan feel down onto his knees and gripped the part where he was hit in pain.

"Cregan!" Sansa and Rodrick yelled out in shock, both caught paralyzed.  
"My lord!" Triston yelled in both shock and fear.  
"Oh well that's just great now isn't it." Harold said in sarcasm with a layer of fear.

"Ahhh..." Clegane let out a grunt of pain and doing something that made everyone become even more paralyzed in fear. He grabbed pieces of his arm and then broke every single piece of it back into place, yelling out in pain for every bone he tried to put in place, "... you really are an annoying little shit aren't you. But now I can enjoy tearing you limb from limb, as slowly as possible". After he said that the Mountain slowly started to walk towards Cregan as he finally broke his entire arm back in. Cracking his knuckles Clegane towered over Cregan as he struggled to regain his breath from the impact to what Rodrick could only assume was his ribs and lungs.

Just before the Mountain started to swing at Cregan he felt a hand grabbing his shoulder. "Would you to like to repeat that you son of a bitch?!" Rodrick yelled out as he violently swung the Mountain towards him and punched him straight in the jaw, effectively knocking him out in the process. As everyone saw what happened Rodrick could only think about what he had just done but sadly that was not time for that. He then turned towards the last remaining member of the Clegane household and walked right in front of him.

"Listen to me very closely now. Your lord has just attacked a future member of the Royal Family and for that he should be either put to death or have his hand cut off. That punishment would include you and your friend over there as well. Because I know that my fathers punishment would be much, much worse, I will let you all go this time. You shall never return to King's Landing and if I see you return then I will personally cut off all of your heads by myself. Am I understood?" the henchman on the ground stood silent as he heard Rodrick talk about all of the things he said before Rodrick grabbed him by the hair and forced him to look at him straight in the eyes. "Am. I. Understood?"

"Y- yes, Prince Rodrick, I understand." the man said reluctantly as Rodrick let go of his hair and Harold got off of him.  
"Good, then get out of my sight and remember, you are all never to return here again." Rodrick said.

The henchman nodded meekly as he got up from the ground and then with all the strength he could muster he struggled to drag both his fellow henchman and the Mountain, which, given only the sheer size of Clegane, Rodrick could imagine was more than a handful seeing how much the man was going to have to drag his companions. After the henchman managed to slowly drag away the Mountain and the other henchman Rodrick and everyone else rushed towards Cregan who seemed to be losing more and more breath with every passing moment.

"Cregan are you alright?!" Sansa asked her brother, placing her hand on Cregan's back as he coughed more and more.  
"I'm-... I'm fine, it's just that... he caught me off guard..." Cregan managed to speak out through his coughing and heavy breathing.  
"Well you certainly don't seem fine to me, that blood really isn't helping your argument either." Harold said, pointing to the blood on the ground.  
"Since when did you begin coughing up blood?!" Rodrick asked in a panic, really only joining in around Cregan just now.  
"Oh I don't know prince, maybe the time my ribs almost crushed my lungs." Cregan said in a now much more clearer voice.

"Well then we don't have any time to just lay about now do we? Harold, Triston, go and find me Maester Pycelle and tell him Cregan needs help, right now. Me and Sansa will help carry him to his room so he can lay down." Rodrick gave Harold and Triston orders and the two followed them immediately, standing up and running towards the Maesters Chambers as fast as they could. After they left Rodrick and Sansa went to pick up Cregan but he refused, pushing both of them with as little force as possible as to not have them trip.

"I don't need your two's help, I can stand on my own damn feet." Cregan said, his tone being muffled through his grunts of pain. That attitude had a drastic turn however when Sansa suddenly slapped her brother so hard it seemed to have left a red mark on his face.

"This is no time for you to be stubborn Cregan." Sansa said firmly, "Now let us help you, because I'm not letting you drag yourself all the way through the Red Keep like this.". After saying that Sansa reached her hand towards her brother, her face and expression softening as the twins eyes locked for a moment before Cregan sighed and gave in, taking her hand and letting Sansa throw it over her shoulder.

As Rodrick looked at the whole situation that was unfolding in front of him his brain couldn't help but dissect all that had just happened. In some way it almost reminded Rodrick of the relationship between his own siblings, but, entirely different at the same time. The slap didn't seem to do much at all and that didn't really suprise Rodrick but while Cregan's initial reaction seemed to be that of shock Rodrick couldn't be entirely sure that it was that. It seemed that his sisters words had much more impact than anything else. But not wanting to waste any more time Rodrick went in to help Sansa carry Cregan before being stopped in his tracks by Cregan's stare.

"You stay away." Cregan put it simply, staring towards Rodrick with a perhaps ironically uninterested look.

Rodrick looked at Sansa in confusion as to what he was supposed to do. Cregan was always a mystery to Rodrick, always not being able to read him made Rodrick constantly nervous around him as he couldn't really figure out what he was thinking or what he was going to do. "Just play along with it for now Rodrick. It's the best we can get from him right now." Sansa said, her expression being a stark contrast from her brothers. Rodrick looked first to Sansa, then to Cregan and then back to Sansa. Both were standing still and looking at him, both of them with different expressions as well. After a few moments Rodrick merely shrugged and took a step back.

"Very well then, by all means you two go along and I'll just be following from the side."

 **A Few Hours Later...**

The wounds Cregan had sustained didn't seem to be of any great danger since Maester Pycelle estimated that he would up on his feet in less than a week. To survive a hit from the Mountain himself was no mere feet by itself but at this point Rodrick was used to being suprised. It was strange really, ever since he met the Starks Rodrick just couldn't stop getting into all kinds of trouble. First the bear and now the Mountain, the next thing Rodrick expected to happen was him being forced to take down a dragon or two like it's no big deal.

Lord Stark was furious when he had heard what happened and even more so was Rodrick's father. The difference between the two were how they handled the whole debacle. Lord Eddard kept his calm and decided to wait until he could properly gather his thougths while his father, on the other hand, sent out a search party for Clegane. In a somewhat of a cruel twist of irony the leader of the search party was Sandor Clegane, the Hound himself. Rodrick once again couldn't help but feel bad for Gregor, he's been outlawed by the king and to be honest whatever Cregan was going to do to him must have been far more mercyful than whatever Rodrick's father was going to do to him.

'Ah well... at least Westeros is going to have one less warmongering tyrant walking free.' Rodrick thought to himself. King's Landing was the perfect nest for Clegane's kind, the scum of the earth, and Rodrick was all to familiar with those kinds of people. Taking care of one of those kinds of people won't make Westeros a much safer place as there will always be someone to take their place but perhaps it could ease the minds of many a weary traveler.

He walked through the hallways of the Red Keep, passing many servants, handmaidens, squires and so forth on his way to Cregan's chambers. Eventually he made it to the front door but just as he was about to enter Rodrick could hear people talking inside. It sounded like a woman's voice talking so Rodrick presumed it would have been Cregan's family but something was off. They all visited Cregan two hours ago and he himself saw all of them leave the room. He would have taken more time to think about this but at this point Rodrick was just too tired so he decided to get on with it and opened the door to enter. Inside the room were no other Margaery and Garlan Tyrell, the former of the two currently giving Cregan what Rodrick assumed to be the lecture of the century.

"Has all that time in the North made you thick or have you finally given in to your own ego and grown arrogant?!" Margaery yelled at Cregan who constantly kept his calm.  
"I'm sorry but shockingly I thought that breaking his arm would perhaps discourage him from attacking me." Cregan said calmly, a contrast to who he was talking to.  
"She's right Cregan, it wasn't smart for you to be so careless." Garlan said, siding with his sister on the argument not quite suprisingly.  
"Once again Garlan, I broke his arm. Not really the greatest incentive to keep fighting now is it." Cregan continued to try and explain his actions, his tone and expression constant.  
"It doesn't matter! You let your guard down and you of all people should know better than to ever grow too confident." Margaery shut down Cregan.

Rodrick watched the scene from the entrance in silence as all three of them didn't seem to notice that someone entered the room. He hated to admit it but Rodrick actually found some glee in seeing Cregan being lectured the way he was, not for any ill reason, he didn't have any resentment towards the Stark but sometimes his way of acting so high and mighty ticked Rodrick the wrong way but unlike most people who had quite the bark Cregan packed enough bite to actually back up that awkward silence of his.

Another thing Rodrick noticed other than the obvious argument currently going on was Cregan's direwolf, Sif. He was laying down on the floor in what Rodrick assumed was a blistful slumber. How anyone could sleep in this kind of enviroment was beyond him but something told Rodrick that Sif wasn't the one to skip out on some sleep, no matter the situation.

'Oh... right, those three are still doing their thing...' Rodrick thought to himself as he looked back to Cregan, Margaery and Garlan. It was bad manners for someone to interrupt a conversation but from what he could see both Cregan and Garlan were praying for nothing but that.

"Um... ahem?" Rodrick awkwardly coughed to stop the current argument.

As soon as he did that all three of them turned their heads towards the sound. Margaery with the expression of suprise, Garlan with the expression of confusion and Cregan with the expression of... Cregan. Unintentionally, Rodrick made the whole situation just more awkward and uncomfortable as Margaery and Garlan were caught in a state of shock as they presumably were trying to think up of an excuse as to why they were acting to the prince's future Brother-in-Law.

"Your Grace, um... w-we were jus-" Ser Garlan tried coming up with an excuse on the go but was interrupted by Rodrick.

"Please Ser, spare me the details of what just happened. You would not believe the headache I am having right now. As much as I would love to see where this convesation could lead I will have to beg you two to leave me and Ser Cregan alone for now as I have something I want to discuss with him." Rodrick explained to the two in a tired tone. His words making Cregan raise his brow in curiosity.

At first, Margaery seemed to be hesitant to leave but it seemed that Rodrick's assumptions of her being able to read a situation was correct. "Of course Prince Rodrick, we apologise of the intrusion." Margaery said as she bowed, nodding at her brother to do the same. As soon as she said that both Margaery and Garlan walked out the room without saying another word.

Now the two were alone, both in silence as the only sounds that could be heard were the clashing of waves upon the rocks of the shore. Out of all the things Rodrick could have said at that moment, none of them were coming out of his mouth, absolutely nothing. Cregan didn't help that situation as he just layed in his bed watching Rodrick, using that soul piercing gaze that Rodrick still wasn't used to. Yet despite him not being able to say something, he was still able to think, and at that moment there was just one particular thought in his mind...

'I immediatelly regret this decision...'

 **Note:**

 **After about 8 months of waiting I AM BACK BABY! Only to probably dissapear for another 8 months... yyyeaaaah.**

 **So as an explanation for what has forced me to dissapear and stop updating stories for a long ass time I would like to tell you all that after the Winter holidays my computer broke down. I wrote this entire chapter on a friends computer that he let me borrow for the time being due to me needing it for work. I do have a laptop but that I use solely for work and I don't like to tamper with it if it's not necessary.**

 **And there you have it. I made this chapter just so you can all have some information and for the fact that I would like to say NO. None of my stories are dead and I will continue writing them... I've just kind of hit a major pay wall (literally). So until I manage to get a new computer and continue writing both of my stories I would like to make a shameless advertisement to one of my friends who just started writing his own story and who is the one that let me borrow his computer to write this chapter.**

 **His username is KnightOfSaints and if it's not too much to ask I would like for anyone who still cares enough to read these notes to go over to him and read his story and make up their own conclusions if they like it or not because I think he would like the support.**

 **Well that's about it. As always I hope you guys enjoyed reading, please leave your reviews if you want to give your opinion, thank you to all the people that followed and favorited this story and I will see you all next time.**


	15. Update

OH YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONE?! YOU THOUGHT I DISSAPEARED FROM THE FACE OF THIS SITE?! YOU THOUGHT THAT THIS GARY STUE-WRITING, UNINSPIRED, DEGENERATE SHELL OF A FUCKING MAN COULD BE TAKEN DOWN?! WELL GUESS WHAT I'M BACK BITCHES!

So a quick explanation: For those who haven't read the last chapter of A Worthy King I'm going to just run by a quick TL;DR. Basically my computer broke down around 8 months ago so I wasn't able to read, write or even check my profile on the site. The only way I was able to write the last chapter of A Worthy King was when a friend of mine let me borrow his laptop. And yeah that is my explanation on what had caused my 8 month dissapearance.

And now for a rundown on what to expect: In the next few days you guys can expect a new chapter of Demon of The North so finally I can continue the story I've been pausing since December. As for A Worthy King do not worry I haven't abandoned that either. After DoTN I will make a new chapter for Worthy King. Subsequently I'll be changing the chapter updates in that order. I'll be trying to keep the chapter updates to once a week although I don't have a certain or specific day for when those chapters are gonna come out.

One week is gonna be a Demon of The North update.  
The second week is gonna be a Worthy King update.

In between those weeks I might be releasing some stories that are mainly the result of some new ideas that have been stirring in my head. So feedback would be welcome on that when it comes out. 


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